Sunset Strip Transect

We finish our sequence of photographic elevation on Horn Avenue just before we reach the shining stretch of road called the Sunset Plaza. By this point it begins to feel like the person behind the wheel is the protagonist of their own movie rather than just another anonymous commuter in a city that has a way of making everyone feel as insignifcant as a speck of dust. The intense and in your face visual nature of the Strip changes the moment from a documentary to a feature film. It is not Holly-wood proper but it is certainly capture the spirit of Hollywood more than anywhere else in this large, diverse city. By the time you exit the strip you know everything that is current and fash-ionable, the zietgeist of Los Angeles condensed into this mile and half stretch of road unperturbed by the troubles of world besides the occasional reminder in the form of a forclosed prop-erty or a vacated store front.

Ed Ruscha went to great lengths to document this small yet signficant piece of Los Angeles and the more time I spend here the more I realize why someone with the affinity for graph-ics would be drawn to a place like this. It is wholly unique yet emblamtic of what Los Angeles has always strived to be. A place where the visual rythmn and the story trumps all else.