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For centuries the ruin, whether genuine or artificial, has been recognised
for its enhancing effect on the picturesque view, provided of course that
it signifies an earlier time and closer relationship to a less industrialised
world. Depictions of the modern world are not always at odds with a celebration
of the wide open spaces. The gas station has long been a feature of the
romanticised modern landscape in painting, photography and cinema. Whilst
this has largely been an American preoccupation, a series of early British
TV advertisements for Shell combined the words of John Betjeman with a 'secret'
English idyll, made more accessible by car. The images in this series ponder
the potential of the 'gas station' to fulfil the role of the picturesque
ruin when, at some point in the future, its time and current signification
has passed. |
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