I was first introduced to Ed Ruscha in my 3D class
last semester by his artwork through literacy, which I now found out he did
with gun powder. Cool, right? Well, our professor gave us three different words
for us to keep, two of mine being ‘pussy’ and ‘3 forks.’ I don’t remember my
third word, because really, what is more memorable than “pussy” and ‘3 forks?’ Some
of my other classmates also received some other brash, absurd, and what you
would think were completely random, words. I just could not imagine what his other
artwork was like, so when I found him during my “search for an artist for my
weekly blog” hunt, I was surprised that he was a photographer, as well. After
reading about him, and looking through more of his work, his style is fed by the
irony and unoriginality of the mass media, and he reflects those feelings
through many of his pieces. 
What really caught my eye was his, “Hollywood
Boulevard: Then & Now.” He had to have a clear thought process, along with
great patience to capture Hollywood Boulevard in 1973 and then in 2002. Ruscha,
with the help of his brother, drove down the North and South ends taking photos
of each building on 35 mm color-negative film. Thirty years later, using a
three person camera crew and the same type of equipment, he re-captured
Hollywood Boulevard. It took three days to complete the job, as opposed to the
eight hours it took thirty years prior. To see the growth in the trees in each
year, really gave sense to the time frame it took to finish this project. Finally,
the 4,500 black and white images and the 13,000 color images were able to be
scanned and digitally composed into four panoramics. Ruscha made a great
decision of choosing to do 1973 in black and white, and 2002 in color, which I
believe was influenced by his view on urban life becoming stale and unoriginal.
Through his choices of filters, he sent me through a time capsule. The black
and white 1973 Hollywood seemed tasteful, and unique. None of the store signs
resembled one another, all of them having their own style. Even the parked cars
gave Hollywood Boulevard this classical and vintage feeling. In 2002, all of
the store signs are plain, making it hard to even be able to differentiate them.
Even some of buildings that did have the cool billboard style signs that made
them stick out even more from the others, no longer had them.
After deeper research of Ruscha, I better understand
his intentions and motives. I probably can now say I’m a fan of his work,
however I can definitely say; the word ‘Pussy’ floating in 3D script is not one
of my most favorites.
Below is the link to the video of the 12 miles of Hollywood Boulevard, Then & Now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KIvGMVhaPs
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