Petit's Mobil Station, by George Tice
I came across the water tower from George Tice’s “Petit’s Mobil Station” this weekend on a trip to Philadelphia. The tower is not exactly hidden, it can be seen clearly from the Turnpike, but I have driven past it many times without noticing that it was there.
I would have liked to stop and take a look around; maybe see if I could find the exact vantage point from which the photograph was taken. It would be interesting to get a feel for how Tice made his decisions that night. In my few forays into night photography, I have found that the logistical difficulties of the day multiply. Framing an image like that on a view camera at night must have been nearly impossible.
Instead, I have to satisfy myself with these satellite images and street views from Google, at least until the next time I happen to be in south Jersey.
Petit's Mobil Station on Google Maps
Petit's Mobil Station, street view on Google Maps
While playing around with Google, I began to think about collecting coordinates, URLS, and Google Map views of other famous photographs. What would the street view look like for Stephen Shore’s “Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue” look like, for example?
Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, by Stephen Shore
Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue on Google Maps
Unlike the Tice photograph, the Chevron station is still there. But I am willing to bet that many of the other commercial landmarks in the area have changed in the 30 years since Shore took his photograph.
Photographer Christopher Rauschenberg talks about walking around in Atget’s shoes in this interview on Lens Culture. Famous photographic sites are all around us, especially in dense urban areas like New York City. Can you think of any well-known photographs whose sites are easily accessible? Have you ever happened upon one? Did you collect photographic evidence?
Living in Albuquerque and often road tripping the state, I drove past the place where Ansel shot “moonrise” about 100 times before I realized it. Now I “see it” everytime.
Just this past weekend, I was across the street from this place http://tinyurl.com/cyzhdf , trying to get a shot. I have seen it before. It’s in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Actually, in the early seventies, I used to live in the neighborhood of another Jeff Wall photo called ” Eviction Struggle”. Here is a link to that image and if you are not familiar with his work you can see how it is displayed in a gallery http://tinyurl.com/adx4nq
I always stand in this exact spot shore must’ve shot a photograph in my city; spokane, wa. It’s magical everytime.
This is a great shot Dalton. Love the tones of the material not illuminated. Great stuff.
Hi Joshua,
I wish I could claim credit for that one, but it’s a photograph by George Tice. He’s an amazing photographer, you should take a look sometime.
I’m so glad to hear that others have favorite locations of famous photographs, too. I can’t wait to go back to Paris someday and start my “Atget scavenger hunt”.
Here’s one from a few years ago:
http://2point8.whileseated.org/2006/11/16/el-paso-beforeafter/
And a related post here:
http://2point8.whileseated.org/2007/11/04/genius-of-photography-part-1/
And here’s another I recall seeing:
http://waxyphotography.com/stranger/archives/90
Someone should start a site that tracks all of these…
This s great post
I’m also a fan of George Tice’s work – especially the image of Petit’s mobil station. My wife and I were planning a trip from New York to DC and I noticed that we would be passing through Cherry Hill, NJ. I found the water tower (thank you google maps!) and on the way down we stopped to get some pictures of it.
I set up my view camera and got a few shots of it at night but after I had packed up and was ready to leave an undercover cop stopped me and started questioning me about what I was doing. Within a few minutes 5 or 6 more cop cars pulled in and joined in on the questioning. Fortunately I was able to explain myself and they let us go after about 45 minutes. be careful if you stop by there to get a picture!
Here’s the one I took…
http://www.jeffreyallenphoto.com/gallery/8434604_P8Hju#585541234_4uQvV
Thanks Jeffrey. Nice shot! I sympathize with your experience with the police, it has happened to me, too. Make sure you have a copy of The Photographer’s Right, if you don’t already.
http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm
Cheers.
With respect to Petit's Mobil Station, I first saw this photograph on an CD cover and was shocked as I live about 1 mile from this location and have passed this station (even bought gas there) about a 1000 times and never once thought it had any artistic value….just show what I know. -MG