2024-05-18T23:45:10-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150138655/john-margolies-elevated-roadside-attractions-to-high-art-with-his-photography-now-digitized-through-the-library-of-congress Shane Reiner-Roth 2019-05-28T13:47:00-04:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/c4/c44da4d3071f17214db45b452dde8c2f.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>There are many names associated with the documentation of American fringe culture during the transformative middle of the 20th century, among them Johnny Cash, Hunter S. Thompson and even architects <a href="https://archinect.com/features/tag/817974/denise-scott-brown" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown</a>. But one of its principal photographers - whose images may be significantly more well known than the name behind them - is John Margolies, the man behind nearly 11,000 photos of American roadside attractions taken throughout the 1970s, as well as several books on the subject.&nbsp;</p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/36/364e76e93ce947aa4eee5cd7d3f7af04.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/36/364e76e93ce947aa4eee5cd7d3f7af04.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Star Lite Outdoor Theater, Route 81-B, Fargo, North Dakota.</figcaption></figure><p>Without a touch of irony or derision, Margolies found inspiration in what other critics readily dismissed as "low-brow" and "tasteless." As the New York Times once profiled him, Margolies made a career out of "scouring back roads for those vanishing emblems of midcentury enterprise, which were already imperiled by air travel, interstates and big-box sprawl."&nbsp;<br></p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/b1/b14b417e4ac60b1182692c390140b572.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/b1/b14b417e4ac60b1182692c390140b572.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Christie's Restaurant sign, cowboy shrimp, Houston, Texas.</figcaption></figure><p>The...</p>