neon allure
The big picture: the neon allure of Los Angeles's video game bars
Franck Bohbot grew up in France, and when he arrived in Los Angeles in 2018 he found the sprawl hard to navigate. One reference point for him was the city's video game bars, whose atmosphere he recognised from favourite adolescent films, including Terminator 2 and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Having wandered into his first one, Blipsy's in Koreatown, he started chasing their escapist gloom. Several of the bars were bathed in light reminiscent of painter Edward Hopper's lonely Nighthawks. In nearly all cases his camera found images whose timeframe was hard to locate: the arcade bars were rooted in 1980s gaming culture – Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Track & Field were staple machines – but their regulars, as here in Barcade in the northeast suburb of Highland Park, often referenced styles from the 1950s onwards.
- North America > United States > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles (0.63)
- Europe > France (0.27)