Google Street View : Ed Ruscha Revisited

Thinking about Top Street Views on the trip home I suddenly remembered how old an idea this actually is. In 1966 the American artist Ed Ruscha created a fold out book showing "Every Building On Sunset Strip". The technique was an automated camera attached to the side of a car. By driving down the street at a fixed speed he was able to photograph every building. Sound familiar.

Every building wasn't Ruscha's only photographic book. Similarly prescient was 1967's "Thirtyfour Parking Lots" photographed from a helicopter. Inspired by this book and the easy access of Google maps the blogger at AMP decided to create a Flickr set of parking lots.

Ruscha eventually went back to his painting. But it may turnout that his most durable contribution was his trail blazing photography.