A private pilot, Light owns a small, two-seat, high-wing aircraft specifically designed for aerial photographic work.
But there are no houses.
No lawns, no pools, no sidewalks.
Once they get built, its hard to un-build them, says Light.
From the air the sculpted earth reads like a strange code cut into the brown hills.
The ferocious demand for housing over-sized, over-watered trophy housing resulted in major alterations to the landscape.
The photos capture the surrealism of these instant cities made even more uncanny by their stalled development.
Huge faux-Mediterranean mansions and irrigated yards neighbor bleak scrub brush.
Residents use the empty lots next door for parking.
Swaths of velvety golf lawns are framed by barren dirt.
