Quite by chance I discovered an interest in photographing disused petrol punps and petrol stations last year on holiday in Normandy. We'd driven through a small village a few kilometres short of our campsite for the first night, the light was fading, but I just had to stop and take some pictures. Some time since I found some really rusty petrol pumps and garage buildings in Snowdonia, and I've just taken photographs of two really decrepit pumps I on a roadside in rural Suffolk. I've also taken pictures of a pump at River Green in Thorpe St Andrew, Norfolk, as much for the incongruous riverside setting as anything.
Again by chance while perusing some back issues online of the journal London Independent Photography I came across an article (Summer 2006, issue no. 4) about the photographer John H Rhodes, who has produced a series of images of disused pumps in the Scottish Highlands and elsewhere.
I think it must be something about their association with the motor vehicle and the freedom of movement it's inspired over the years that kind of makes them an iconic subject. That and the rust, dereliction and decay which I have often sought out in photographic subjects, for reasons I haven't fully thought through.
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