Armed with a shot list and a building that was under construction, the Palms Casino Grand Opening Celebration Book was a huge challenge for Richard to create. Because the black and white coffee table book was to be given out as gifts to the Palms top investors and VIPs on the opening night of the casino, Richard had to search for beauty where nothing but cement, saw dust, tar, electrical wiring and plumbing were all visibly exposed. The original artwork was all shot on black and white film in 2001, meticulously developed and printed in the darkroom by Richard.
"The place looked like a bomb had hit the building when I was hired to create the book. I had to search for beauty in what appeared to be a war zone of construction. I worked odd hours when the crews where not there and found myself becoming one with the building. As I walked alone through the Palms desolate hallways, the wind blowing through its vast corridors would make the eriest of sounds. hallways with sometimes only one other person on the entire grounds walking around as security, I only one finished room, and large amounts of construction equipment laying everywhere. The premise of the book was to give the viewers an abstract vision of finer details of the casino which could eventually be found by it's guests.
Because digital photograpy was in it's infancy, Richard created the images on black and white film, processed and printed them in the dark room. The book and the exhibit were a major success! Following the opening of the Casino, the images went on tour to exhibition in celebrity hot spots around the country. Currently the images are exhibited in massive blow up inside of the Palms Sky Tube walkway.
