66 13 July 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Final Analysis
Peter Dench is a photographer, writer, curator and presenter based in London. He is one of the co-curators of Photo North in Harrogate and has been exhibited dozens of times. He has published a number
of books including The Dench Dozen: Great Britons of Photography Vol 1; Dench Does Dallas; The British Abroad; A&E: Alcohol & England and England Uncensored. Visit peterdench.com
Peter Dench considers...
‘Holiday Motel’, 1995, by Fred Sigman
Photo Critique
T
he fi rst time I
checked into a motel
was on my fi rst
professional foreign
assignment. The receptionist
asked me for how many hours
I would like the room – it was
that kind of place. ‘Five days,’
I replied. She looked surprised.
Waking up in the morning,
I tuned in the radio to hear
how many violent incidents
there had been in the area
where I was staying; there
were quite a few.
The writer I was working
with for the magazine feature
was relaxing at a luxury hotel
across town. I was happy
where I was, as this was an
American motel. It did what
all great American motels do:
the room doors opened onto
a ferociously busy highway,
the curtains didn’t quite close,
the free coff ee wasn’t quite
strong enough, the bed not
quite comfy enough and the
minuscule swimming pool,
not quite clean enough. I was
in my element.
Iconic visual role
The American motel is
embedded in visual history, a
constant and iconic supporting
actor starring in classic fi lms
such as Psycho, Natural Born
Killers, No Country For Old
Men, Leaving Las Vegas,Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas and
Pa r i s , Te x a s. The motel is
versatile in its role, from a
villainous crime scene to the
location of a lovers’ reunion.
In 1997 I met the German
fi lmmaker, playwright, author
and photographer, Wim
Wenders. We discussed his
book of photographs, Written
in the West, and we discussed
motels. He knew they had
impact and his images of them
are indeed impactful. The Hot
Springs motel is as fl aked and
sun baked as the elderly
cowboy standing next to it in
the brilliantly named town of
Truth or Consequences, New
Mexico. The green and red
neon of the Quiet Sleep motel
in Mojave, California, buzz into
life under a brooding orange
sky. The letters ‘L’ and ‘S’ have
taken a vacation from the sign
of the less-than-appealing, Old
Trapper’s motels, San
Fernando, California.
American photographer, art
historian and adventurer FredSigman has gone further
than Wenders and produced
an entire book on motels.
Motel Vega s, published by
Smallworks Press, is a pictorial
memoir on the rise and fall of
America’s roadside
architecture in Las Vegas and
the surrounding area. This
image, shot on a large-format
view camera, includes that
most pleasing of roadside
beacons for the weary traveller,
VACANCY, seen beyond its
omnipresent neighbour, theliquor store. I hope Sigman
waited until dusk for the yellow
lights of the Holiday Motel to
fl ick on and dance into the
darkness. Sigman says, ‘What
I did not fi nd in the motels
were the wistful memories of
childhood family vacations, or
the reminiscences of bygone
eras of Kerouac-inspired road
trips.’ I fi nd it impossible not to
look at this photograph
without it unleashing a
cascade of nostalgia, and I’m
OK with that because that’s
what a photograph can do so
very, very well.
Motel Vega s by Fred Sigman
is published by Smallworks
Press and is available to
buy now.‘I hope Sigman waited until dusk for
the yellow lights of the Holiday Motel to
fl ick on and dance in the darkness’
© MOTEL VEGAS / FRED SIGMAN