Intimate Nevada

A close look at the UNLV Library's Archives & Special Collections Photographic Holdings

Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond

It is not the place we live, the people we share our lives with, or the things we possess—intimacy is in the moments when all of those things come together.

Intimate. adjective

*in·​ti·​mate | \ ˈin-tə-mət \

  1. marked by a warm friendship developing through long association intimate

  2. suggesting informal warmth or privacy

  3. of a very personal or private nature

  4. marked by very close association, contact, or familiarity

  5. belonging to or characterizing one's deepest nature

I really connected with this photo. Growing up here without a pool meant many summers under the spray of the hose. My kids now play the same way. I would absolutely wait behind the camera to catch this candid and adorable moment.

This child is a familiar feature in the Bracken family albums, but only a small portion of those photos have inscriptions. Making the contents of the collection a beautiful pile of lost memories. But, this moment was important enough for the family to develop and place in an album to remember and cherish.

This begs the question: What am I doing with all the photos in my growing digital archive?- sadly, not preserving them in an album.

Photograph of a child drinking from a garden hose, Las Vegas (Nev.), 1900-1925, Ferron/Bracken Photo Collection PH-0001 Album 3, 26.3

These photographs help connect us to our past, and show that the human experience stays the same as much as it changes. This concept became clear to me while researching this project and it’s why this exhibition combines professional view-camera work with family snapshots.


Waldorf-Astoria, Not New York, but Goldfield, Nevada, PH-00350 0095, C.A. Earle Rinker Photograph Collection

As a Las Vegas native, I encountered burros in the Red Rocks and out by the lake—I kind of love them. I scoured the archive and found that the only “documented” photos of Jack Tuck have burros in them. It was endearing and I wanted to know more about him.

I learned a bit about his family. They settled here in 1904 and left soon after he died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Jack was buried at the old Stewart Ranch cemetery.

Photograph of Jack Tuck and a donkey, 1910s, Spud Lake Collection.

My research focused on the details within images and the way that photographs document change.

A snapshot taken with a compact camera and an 8”x10” glass-plate negative made by a professional photographer have more in common than their differences in technique would

immediately suggest.

El Portal Interior, PH-00017 0017, Ernie W. and Lucille Marleau Cragin Photograph Collection


Earle Rinker documented his work and social life rather comprehensively, saving ticket stubs and menus, inscribing photos and holding on to work papers. His collection is a treasure in the archives.

I did research on this project at a time when my oldest son left home—he’s about the same age as Earle and I was drawn to the photos in letters he sent to his mother.

I wonder at his desk and its contents—how does it all speak to his identity? Clearly he had close friends and cared about family, he liked to gamble and brandish guns—he's a man of his time who had affection for the delicate turn of an ankle. I laugh that he chose to send evidence of his lifestyle home.

Photograph of a desk with playing cards and pistols, Goldfield (Nev.), early 1900s, 0350 Album 1, 42, Cleveland A. Earle Rinker Collection.

Handwritten captions on the photographs themselves show personality in

the days before social media. Documentary photographs taken to preserve interiors and buildings in static form become useful over time.



Charles Perry in front of his store in Searchlight, Nevada, PH-00150 0013. Charles Thomas-Perry Photographs

Anne Savage

Art, BA, 2021

MPA Candidate 2025

I gravitated toward photographs that spoke to the virtue of why they were taken. What is it about a moment that makes us wish to take it and keep it for memories? The snapshots and candids from archives led to a sense that photos can give us the shape of experience without the content. They meant something to someone (enough to keep them in an album) making them relevant and meaningful to me. I chose these photos to share the connection I felt and give viewers a glimpse of UNLV's Special Collections & Archives.

Lauren Paljusaj

English, BA, 2020

Photographs showcase the history and art of Southern Nevada, the place that we all call home. These images represent over one hundred years of shared human experience, using interior design, architecture, and humor.

These objects represent shifting cultural styles and attitudes throughout history, a time that no longer exists except in material memory like photographs.