Ralph Richter

THE DESERT GLOW

In no other culture in the world have art and commerce grown so inseparable as in the US. Like lighthouses in the night, billboards of the most adventurous shapes and colors draw people into hotels, restaurants, and casinos along the lonely highways and glittering strips of Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City.

In the Neon Boneyard of Las Vegas’s Neon Museum, the ever-young history of America’s exalted advertisement and pop culture spreads out across 3 acres. Under the glistening sun of the Nevada desert, the disused, sometimes gigantic signs and advertisement “sculptures” have become discolored. They originate from the legendary game halls such as the Gold Nugget and Silver Slipper; today they seem an echo of a golden age.

The Düsseldorf photographer Ralph Richter has consequently captured the extinguished objects in photographs whose colors have been highly unsaturated so as to lend the fast-paced constructions an almost historic aura. Dramatic contrasts, tight, highly composed cropping, and precise selection of each motif strengthen the effect. From the vast abundance, Richter has selected single, powerful words that, in his images, extend well beyond the mere sales pitch.

Horst Klöver