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American Flats trash the dress for Melissa and Dan

By Monique and Scott

Scott and I had so much fun with Melissa and Dan during their trash the dress session up near Virginia City at American Flats, an old mill that once processed gold and silver ore from the Comstock. Almost every inch of the decrepit place is now covered with graffiti, but there is so much of it, it all comes together with the crumbling enormity of cement set in the dry sage highlands, that it actually makes a stunning backdrop for portraits. Melissa and Dan are fellow yogis, so our ride up to Virginia City was filled with a lot of conversation about yoga poses, philosophy, etc. We did get a visit from a sherif towards the end of our shoot telling us we were not allowed to be inside the massive structures. Even though American Flats is on BLM land, he said it wasn’t a safe spot for us to be. Luckily we had already been there for a few hours, and got the images we wanted before his arrival. It seems there is always an article in the paper about how American Flats is going to be torn down soon, so we wanted to get up there for a shoot before this happens. If you decide to visit American Flats, you will need a 4wd vehicle to negotiate the rutted out dirt roads, some good hiking shoes, and a sense of adventure.

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