Faith in Las Vegas

Hardcover, 90 pages, full color

12.8” x 11”

2013

A couple of years ago, in looking for new photographic opportunities, I discovered what appeared to be a developed but very desolate region north of the Las Vegas Strip that I later learned was called the Westside.  There were many vacant lots, and although it was a residential area, there were few trees and little landscaping compared to other areas of the city.  But what really intrigued me was the unusually large number of churches. 

My first trip to the Westside was in October 2012. After leaving the glitz of central Las Vegas by crossing under the interstate, I emerged in the middle of a concrete landscape seemingly populated everywhere by churches—but not the iconic type that you see in the movies. Many of the nondescript buildings appeared to have been built for other purposes—as homes and commercial buildings—and converted into small churches over time. Others obviously had been built as churches but were simple and unadorned, and a few looked like more traditional churches.

The general lack of greenery, the vacant lots covered with gravel, and the absence of cars and people were striking.  I’ve always been drawn to empty places – places without cars or people.  That makes it easier to see the basic structure of a scene and to photograph it. People are distracting and change the entire setting. I’m interested in the forms, shapes, and lines and how they interrelate. So, this area had a natural draw for me.

The names of some of the churches were vibrant, emotionally evocative, and seemed to reflect the values and beliefs of the churchgoers: House of Hope, Fresh Start Baptist Church, True Love, Pilgrim Rest, Moments of Miracles, New Hope, and so on.  These were names with a purpose, real and from the heart, expressing hope and a positive future.  And the churches showed the hand of the people who cared about them—many had hand-painted church names on the walls and some looked like they had been painted by church members. In such an impoverished environment, what struck me was the depth of faith and belief that these churches represented and the obviously trying circumstances that the church communities had weathered.

As I learned later, this area was a product of sanctioned segregation in the era after World War II when the Westside initially grew rapidly, as it was the only place that Blacks were allowed to live. But that changed when segregation was “officially” ended in the 1960s. Many of the area’s residents moved out then but continued to return on Sunday mornings to attend services.

The Westside is an area where restaurants, clubs, and businesses have now faded away, leaving abandoned buildings, many of which were subsequently removed. Despite these changes, the churches remained. The enduring nature of these churches is a tribute to the human spirit. 

The photographs in this book show the churches at rest, not full of life as they are on Sundays, with members attending services and cars in the parking lots.  As a result, the photographs don’t represent the churches as the churchgoers envision and experience them or the religious and cultural aspects of their church communities, but instead they show the photographic and aesthetic qualities of the church buildings themselves.