Gas Stop

From 1978 to 1981, David Freund analyzed the culture, architecture and landscape of gas stations in more than forty states. The photographs show customers and workers in postures and actions peculiar to gassing up, or just hanging out. Architecture and signage, both corporate and vernacular, beckon passing drivers. Regional landscapes hold and surround gas stations, each with its own landscape of designed plantings or scrappy volunteers. Stations were also outposts for American networks other than petroleum, seen in telephone booths, mailboxes and powerlines. These and all that surrounds them spark recognition and recollection, accruing as elements of a nonlinear American narrative.