Twenty six gasoline stations - Ed Ruscha
Annaïck Guena


Twenty six gasoline stations is a photographic book of Edward Ruscha made between 1962 and 1963, on the road between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City. 

To begin, I will talk about Ed Ruscha, his artistic education and the beginning of his artistic career.

In a second point, I’ll explain more precisely what this photographic book Twenty six gasoline stations is.

To conclude, I’ll present other images of the urban trip of Ed Ruscha, in LA.

1. Ed Ruscha was borned in 1937 in Nebraska. His family moved to Oklahoma in 1941. In 1956, he was received at the Chouinard Art Institute where he learned painting and photography. This artistic education had been decisive for his work and his vision of art. He considered that the idea and the concept were more important than the quality of the image. The photography was a step of reflexion on his creation.

He made his first photos during a trip in Europe at the end of 50s. He came back in Los Angeles in 1961. LA became the main subject of his work.

2. In 1962, Ed Ruscha made a photographic series of twenty six gasoline stations on the route 66 highway which connects LA to Oklahoma city. He constitued an inventory, a catalog of abandonned gas stations. Like a journalist or a video reporter, he wanted to be objective and expressionless. 

Ed Ruscha wanted to show the banality of this architectural standard and was only interested by the structural aspect of these elements.

The space of these images is empty and there is no life. This dramatic and unfeeling aesthetic is a characteristic of his photographic work.

3. Twenty six gasoline stations was his first photographic book. In 60s, Ed Ruscha produced other images of the architecture and the urban environment of LA. With the same process of series, he registred parking lots, buildings, swimming pools or palm trees. All these inventories are real contact sheets. 

Ed Ruscha used the same techniques as in the cinema. For Thirty four parking lots he made aerial photos, and he used the travelling for his photos of the sunset strip.

All these images, taken on the road feeling, seem to non professional photos but are real road movies.

Twenty six gasoline stations was the start point of the Ed Ruscha's work. These photos are characteristic of his dramatic and unfeeling aesthetic. He showed the banality of urban life, urban environment. 

All his photographic work is a catalog of architectural standards. This typical LA artist produced typical images of LA. His work is a real road trip in the city.