playground of the gods

Nicholas A. Price’s Valley of Fire images are on display at Springs Preserve.

By CHARLIE JOHNSTON | January/February 2008

Photo: Nicholas A. Price

The stark landscape of Nevada’s first state park, Valley of Fire, has served as the backdrop for major motion pictures, a laboratory for geologic study, a source of intriguing insight into early mankind, and a photographer’s dream.

Nicholas A. Price documented the park’s other-worldly beauty in 2,500 photographs that, as he puts it, portray his perspective of where all the artistic ideas of life as we know it began—in the Valley of Fire’s “Playground of the Gods.”

An exhibition of more than 30 photographs from Price’s collection, including hand-printed images created in his trademark black-and-white format and color landscapes, is on display January 10 through April 30 at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas. The showing, located in the Big Springs Gallery of the ORI•GEN Experience building, is the premier event for the exhibit before it begins a national tour in 2009.

Valley of Fire State Park has long been admired by artists, as evidenced by 3,000-year-old petroglyphs left on the ancient sandstone formations by Native Americans. Shifting sands during the Jurassic Period, 150 million years ago, created the landscape that so inspired Price and the early artists. The park’s dramatic scenery has also attracted the attention of filmmakers (such as Star Trek: Generations, 1994 and The Professionals, 1996) and has been the backdrop for numerous TV commercials.

Valley of Fire State Park is located 55 miles east of Las Vegas via Interstate 15 and State Route 169. Springs Preserve is located at 333 South Valley View Boulevard between U.S. 95 and Alta Drive in Las Vegas.