Formento & Formento - Golden nuggets

“Golden nuggets” celebrated photo of the couple Formento & Formento

Limited edition of 2000 copies from 2013 with no reprints to date. This photo bears the number 0235 / 2000.
The print measures 33 x 23 cm, mounted on thick fine art cardboard (430 g/m2), sold ready to frame with a black fine art 30 x 40 cm mat and a certificate of origin.

A carefully staged scene in a cinema-style landscape format, a silent film whose dialogue comes out of the very real sets that serve as a backdrop. A cinema where colors are enhanced by cool lighting, a symbolic American-night reinterpretation worthy of the masters of chiaroscuro or of great filmmakers whom the Formentos openly align themselves with (Wong Kar Wai; Alfred Hitchcock; David Lynch …)

The set features the neon signs of the famous Las Vegas Casino “Golden Nuggets,” a true glory of the 60s to 90s that was dismantled and stored without care on an empty lot, a wink to the cult classic “Sunset Boulevard,” a symbol in itself!

The disillusioned heroines are wingless feminine angels, fallen stars still so desirable in their bare essence, who have packed in their ever-present suitcases the remnants of happier stories against apocalyptic backdrops of a world from which men have vanished.

Context of the photo

Richeille and BJ crisscrossed the USA and Canada during the financial crisis of 2009 to 2013 in a caravan, far from city centers, to highlight the dilapidated but real remnants of a glorious past.
Richeille, of English origin, and BJ from Hawaii have been working together since 2005, and the Formento couple is internationally recognized for their unique photographic work. From their two perspectives arises a work with a unique identity, romantic clichés that explore the subconscious on themes of love, nostalgia for a better world, with a touch of erotism carried by sublime models sometimes nude, always real women whom the couple met and highlighted in the true sets after which they lived when the subprime crisis descended on America like a leaden blanket. Gas stations or desert motels in California; fading neon signs of famous Las Vegas casinos that “draw more light”; former Marine training camps whose only remains are mobil home specters; abandoned California seaside resorts at Salton Sea or Jackrabbit, near Palm Springs, which in the 1950s symbolized the American dream with glamorous hotels, pools now dry; deserted hospitals, ruined churches, wingless airplane hangars in Nevada.

Photo site for lithophotographs, drawings, engravings, posters or high-quality inkjet prints. Focus on great photographers, such as Helmut Newton, Formento & Formento, Steve McCurry, Karl Lagerfeld, Frank de Mulder, Manfred Baumann, Ruslan Lobanov, or Marc Lagrange … and illustrators like Hugo Pratt, Milo Manara, Giovanna Casotto, John Bolton, Paolo Serpieri, Moebius, Tisselli, Bilal, Giraud, Franck Frazetta …

Expeditions in protective packaging.