Gasoline

Gasoline is a book of press photographs of gas stations, dated 1944 to 1995, that David Campany collected from the picture archives of newspapers.

Campany bought the prints from several American newspapers that were selling off their analogue collections as they moved to digital image files. Many carry crop marks in grease pen made by newspaper art directors or layout staff, and the backs hold dates, captions and clippings. Campany notes that gas stations make the news through accidents, crimes, shortages and economic crises. In an interview on his website Campany says the final image in the book, from Germany on 26 December 1944, is the earliest and the only one made outside North America. MACK published it as a 100-page softcover with a dustjacket.

Campany is a London-based writer, curator and artist who writes on documentary, photojournalism, art, cinema, fashion, archives and architecture. His books include Art and Photography (2003), Photography and Cinema (2008) and Walker Evans: the magazine work (2013). He won the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Writing in 2012.