Valerie BischoffWriter/Director

The Great Basin

2019 - Photography Series

In 1993, when my parents moved the family from Southern California to live in a trailer on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada, I initially resented living in a cultureless void (at least this is what I thought at ten years old). Growing up, I tried to get far away from the desert community. After traveling the world, I revisited my notion of culture, realizing that Nevada culture is deeper and richer than I had judged it to be. The freedom of open spaces and isolation engenders a unique spirit amongst the rural Nevada population – traces of a Western expansionist ideology and brash individualism. This series offers a window into rural Nevada’s unique culture.