Stalled construction projects inspire photography show

Stark skeletons of steel frame the canyon of neon light in the near distance. Cranes that have been still for years loom over rusting construction sites. Half-finished buildings designed for the use of hundreds to thousands of people daily sit disturbingly devoid of people.

These are the haunting, otherworldly images in "To the Neon Gods They Made," the photography show at the Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive.

Longtime friends Michael Monson and Tony Flanagan began the project two years ago. Flanagan, who teaches photography at Coronado High School, and Monson, who teaches English and creative writing at Spring Valley High School, were brainstorming ideas for student photography projects. Inspired by the slew of stories about stalled major building projects, they dreamed up the concept for the show.

"We decided we liked the idea so much, we'd do it ourselves," Monson said.

Several of the pictures include dynamic images of low clouds over the city. Shooting on cloudy nights was a happy accident. The pair worked on the project as their schedule allowed, usually showing up at a property around 10 p.m. and shooting it from multiple angles.

"It depended on the building," Monson said. "We only found one angle that we felt worked at the Wyndham (Desert Blue), down near the Rio. Vantage Lofts in Henderson, on the other hand, we shot from a lot of angles and we ended up using four of them in print. It's very photogenic."

Monson and Flanagan worked collaboratively, with both of them planning the shots, shooting them and deciding which angles to keep. On the finished pieces, both of them have a hard time remembering who did what.

The pair didn't have to trespass and didn't have any problems with rough characters around the vacant properties. They managed for the most part to avoid altercations with security, with only one hiccup: a shot of St. Regis Residences at The Palazzo. They were trying to take a shot from in front of the Fashion Show mall when a security guard objected to their tripod.

Another inspiration for the show was the pair's desire to work with high dynamic range, or HDR Photography. HDR allows photographers to compensate for a high contrast image by shooting several images at different exposures and combining the clearest and most detailed portions of each photo into one HDR picture. Flanagan handled the computer work to create the final pieces.

"The great thing about the process is that it allows you to get this sort of glow you don't get in most night photography," Flanagan said. "Also, you usually can't capture a lot of detail at night because it's so dark, and things get lost in the shadows. This sort of illuminates the shadows."

A version of the show with smaller prints has been on display twice, once in a tent during a monthly First Friday downtown arts festival and once in a gallery at Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont St. The pair has since opened a gallery in Emergency Arts called Counterspace, which mostly shows the work of local photographers with some photos by New Yorkers whom Flanagan met in a class he took there last summer.

The version of the show at the Winchester features larger prints hung with binder clips and visible hanging hardware.

"We originally planned to frame or mount them, but we didn't want them to just look like a poster in a hotel," Monson said. "In the end, we felt the hanging of them should be a little reminiscent of the subject, like it's a work in progress. You can see the strings . There's not a lot of pretense about them."

Similarly, they choose a glossy paper to make reflection both figuratively and literally part of the work.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.