A RoadSide Walk With A View

by Tim Stubbs Hughes

At the beginning of the Surfaces & Strategies (Module 3) we were given the task of creating a photobook inspired by Ed Ruscha.

Of the book “Twenty Six Gasoline Stations”, Ruscha says that the title came before the images.

“I read what I want to read. I think most people do that. Or I read what I want to see.” Ed Ruscha, Tate Modern)

So, this is where I started.

I started with the activity, a short walk UK lockdown style, and a circular (ish) route from my front door and back again.

I then thought about what I would encounter upon my journey.

In addition to this, and in my research of Ed Ruscha’s photographic books, I was struck by how he played with the narrative and structure of each book.

How photographs were placed on pages, the use of blank pages, black pages, the absence of humanity, and how the title impacted upon your concept of what might be contained within the pages.

I feel that with Ed Ruscha you are not creating a photographic book but more of an artistic statement. Photography is the tool which he wanted to use to express what he felt and saw.

“I felt when I got going on the books that it was really the red meat of my work. It was the choice bit. Although I was painting pictures at that time, I felt that the books were more advanced as a concept than the individual paintings I had been doing.” (Ruscha, 2008)

This was the outcome