The Burgers of L.A.

Autographed.

Combine an early fascination with the once ubiquitous postcard, the graphic qualities of vernacular signage, the discriminating frame of the photographer’s eye, and an acknowledged penchant for an “art practice grounded in the quotidian aspects of work and community,” and one has the recipe for Andrew Uchin’s The Burgers of L.A.

After a childhood spent in Florida, Uchin arrived in Los Angeles in the late 1990s by way of San Francisco. The photographer’s eye observed a familiarity between the Florida landscape of his youth and the architectural landscape that accommodates Southern California’s car culture. His commute through Northeast Los Angeles took him through neighborhoods of mid-century architecture and strip malls with their omnipresent burger joints. In his words, he “was drawn to the stark, simple graphic nature of the architectural elements in these structures” and he began photographing them as an aid in acclimating to his new surroundings. Arriving at work, he often passed through a sculpture garden featuring the work of Auguste Rodin including his monumental sculpture, The Burghers of Calais. Viewed repeatedly, the photographer’s eye began to reframe the sculpture which “included a figure that when viewed obliquely, appeared to have two hands holding a hamburger” (title image). That visualization generated the paronomastic conversion and burgher became burger followed by the serendipitous fillip of the Calais/L.A. rhyme. With that the focus of the exploratory photographs morphed from the architecture of the burger joints to their signs.

In this series the graphics of each sign are eloquently conveyed in black and white and celebrate the individuality of each establishment. They range from minimalist (“Hamburger”) to creative (“Hi-Life Hamburgers”) to amusing (“Our Hamburger is Bigger Not Smaller”). The stark contrasts also enhance the sign’s graphics which are reinforced by the architectural composition of each image. Represented otherwise is an earlier 20th century era reinforced by the postcard accordion format presentation. It is a potent combination of imagery and recollection.

Uchin takes inspiration from the commonplace. This collection of images celebrates these unique signs and visually preserves a moment in the history of Los Angeles’ streetscape; some are no longer extant. He also provides the lens through which we see what we might otherwise ignore or dismiss and that is the extraordinary in the ordinary. The Burgers of L.A. is an homage to the postcard and an emblematic souvenir of Los Angeles.

– Jeffrey Herr

Jeffrey Herr is the curator emeritus of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, a UNESCO World Heritage List site. He also supervised the conservation program of Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts beginning in 2010. In addition, Herr was the editor of the publication, Landmark L.A.: Historic-Cultural Monuments of Los Angeles.