Real Road Test

Philippe Séclier's Real Road Test repeats Ed Ruscha's photographic books of the 1960s sixty years on, travelling Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles and returning to the places Ruscha photographed.

Séclier used one method for every series. He found each site from its exact coordinates and photographed it again, this time in colour. The counts change along the way. There are 36 gasoline stations where Ruscha had 26. The nine swimming pools become one pool shot from nine angles. Ruscha photographed every building on the Sunset Strip, and Séclier records its crossings instead. The book also has A Few Parking Lots, Some Palm Trees, Various Los Angeles Apartments and Studios Estate Opportunities, a series given over to Ruscha's studios.

The title borrows from Ruscha's Royal Road Test (1967), and the format follows his books: a small softcover, 14 × 18 cm, 128 pages with 130 colour photographs, text in French and English. It closes with "Then & Now Books," an illustrated bibliography of more than 60 books by and about Ruscha, drawn from Séclier's own collection.