t w e n t y s i x

s m a l l

g e s t u r e s

Concept with acknowledgement of Twentysix Gasoline Stations, by Ed Ruscha, first published 1963

© 2015, Brian Steptoe, photographs and book design

There are many photobook titles that have become recognised as both breaking with convention and establishing the role of photobooks within the photographic community. Two in particular by Ed Ruscha stand out: Twentysix Gasoline Stations, published in 1962 and Every Building on the Sunset Strip, published in 1966. The former consists of straight photographs of gas stations on Route 66 between Los Angeles and Oklahoma. Banal but intriguing, these and other similar publications from Ruscha established a trend followed by many others, of which some 90 are described in Various Small Books, edited by Jeff Brouws, Wendy Burton and Hermann Zscheigner, published by MIT Press in 2013. That book and Ed Ruscha’s approach to showing photography has been the inspiration behind Twentysix Small Gestures.

There is a story that Twentysix Gasoline Stations was rejected by the US Library of Congress when it was sent to their book deposit, with the reason given that it was not considered to be a book.