ED RUSCHA’S LA
A Video Homage To His LA Street Photography
As one of three winners of the annual J. Paul Getty Medal Award, Ed Ruscha has created a love song to Los Angeles in the way of a short video. Channeling the Beat Generation writer, Jack Kerouac, Ruscha reads from the 1957 novel On the Road. The excerpts are taken from the time young Kerouac spent criss crossing across the country, and specifically his experience on the dazzling streets of Los Angeles.
No stranger to the streets of LA, Ruscha has been photographing this specific area for more than 50 years, with no intentions of ending his project yet. Since his beginnings on the project, Ruscha has been very particular about the formula and system in which he photographs with, shooting from the bed of his pickup truck while in motion. Methodically, he has shot from the same set of measurements to keep the photo structure uniform throughout the years. The photographic process in which he began has over the years transformed into a historical documentation which has been made available to the public through the Getty Museum.
A combination of photography, written word, and spoken word, the two-and-a-half-minute video is snappy and punchy, emulating the style of the Beat Generation of the 1950s. Ruscha’s images fit hand-in-hand with the words of Jack Kerouac, as the viewer experiences the zany characters ambling along the Californian streets. Shot in black and white and accompanied by soft piano, drums, and bass guitar, the video evokes sensibilities of the good old days and chasings of the long-gone American dream. Accessing a time when things seemed simpler and hitchhiking was still a valid mode of travel, the images speak of the simplicities of apple pie and ice-cream, of only having a dollar to your name, and of being in child-like awe of all the cars lined along Hollywood Boulevard.
