Gas and Glamour: Striking new photographs capture the enduring businesses of the '50s and '60s in Los Angeles that used innovative architecture - like a bakery adorned with two huge doughnuts - and whimsical neon signs to draw in motorists
The bright lights enticed with their promise of food, fuel, fun and rest. In the 1950s and '60, the businesses that sprang up along Los Angeles' streets and boulevards wanted to stand out to attract an important customer: the motorist.
And like the colorful and chrome cars that channeled the prosperity of the post-war economic boom, the imaginative architecture of these motels, diners, gas stations, coffee shops and fast-food restaurants mirrored that optimism.
Ashok Sinha, a photographer, explained that he decided to focus on these 'remnants of a different era' that were still standing. 'I'm a car guy. I love LA for that,' he told DailyMail.com.
He spent years documenting these buildings for his new book, Gas and Glamour: Roadside Architecture in Los Angeles. Sinha noted the whimsy and humor of the first image he took for the series: the Donut Hole. 'This started my journey for making these photographs.'
Built in 1967 or '68, a customer still can pick up a tasty treat by driving through the hole of huge doughnuts at the bakery's entrance and exit. 'It was a bizarre thing to see in front of you at that scale,' he said of the massive fiberglass replicas. 'Things that you never expect to see.
'The building is the product that they are selling.'
