Urban landscapes and architectural detail
One cool fall Friday after the U-District art walk Michelle and watched the Seattle skyline at the Mountaineering Club on the Graduate Hotel rooftop. After a few experiments, I decided to shoot a crisp raw image and remove the focus in the studio. Yosemite 2014 was accidental and I wanted to experiment with a city scene both recognizable and unknowable.
Another image from the abandoned 76 gas station in Woodinville, Washington. Just as 20th Century America saw the world through television screens, today we increasingly view our world through cell phones.
Just down the hill from my home, across Highway 522 in Woodinville. The former 76 gas station has been abandoned for many years despite being poised at the entrance to downtown. The midcentury angles contrast sharply with the graffiti.
Aquebogue, New York, close to where I grew up, home to the Modern Snack Bar since 1950. I shot its iconic mid-century sign standing in the middle of Main Road, dressed in black—possibly not the best attire given the speeding October traffic.
Leaving an art walk in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, I was struck by the momentary emptiness of Pike Place, angular neon jutting in different lines and angles.
During an architecture tour of desert homes in the Twin Palms neighborhood of Palm Springs, one retro Atomic Age home had a fantastic collection of midcentury cars, including this 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 in “Turquoise Mist”.
In August 2020, I was driving cross country solo. Midafternoon, I pulled off to find gas - and found this station instead. It reminded me of Edward Hopper’s famous “Gas” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Also, my father worked for Texaco for almost twenty years.
In August 2022, we spent several days staying in Sequim, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula while visiting Olympic National Park. Sequim is one of the sunniest spots on the Pacific Northwest - outside the “rain shadow” of the mountains and known for it’s lavender fields and ocean views. This station sits just east of downtown. And since my father worked for Texaco for almost twenty years, it was an obvious subject.