The Burgers of Los Angeles

By Andrew Uchin. Essay by Jeffrey Herr.  I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the late 1990s to take a job working in a museum bookstore. My daily commute from Echo Park to Pasadena involved transitioning through neighborhoods that featured mid-century vernacular architecture particular to the strip malls and independent burger joints of Northeast Los Angeles. In the early 2000s, as part of a process of acclimating to my new home, I began photographing some of these fast food restaurants. I was drawn to the stark, simple graphic nature of the architectural elements in these structures.  As part of my daily work routine at the museum, I crossed a sculpture garden featuring sculptures by Auguste Rodin. One day I noticed that Rodin’s grouping, “The Burghers of Calais” included a figure that when viewed obliquely, appeared to have two hands holding a hamburger. This was the beginning of my journey into The Burgers of LA.–Andrew Uchin 12-image fold-out postcard portfolio Andrew Uch