{"id":9657,"date":"2023-04-17T11:40:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T09:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/17\/the-big-picture-the-neon-allure-of-los-angeless-video-game-bars\/"},"modified":"2023-04-17T11:40:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T09:40:36","slug":"the-big-picture-the-neon-allure-of-los-angeless-video-game-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/17\/the-big-picture-the-neon-allure-of-los-angeless-video-game-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"The big picture: the neon allure of Los Angeles\u2019s video game bars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franck Bohbot\u2019s photographs of the city\u2019s gaming spots depict a world of escapism familiar from American movies and art<\/p>\n

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\u2019s video game bars<\/a>, whose atmosphere he recognised from favourite adolescent films, including Terminator 2<\/em> and Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em>. Having wandered into his first one, Blipsy\u2019s in Koreatown, he started chasing their escapist gloom. Several of the bars were bathed in light reminiscent of painter Edward Hopper\u2019s lonely Nighthawks<\/em>. In nearly all cases his camera found images whose timeframe was hard to locate: the arcade bars were rooted in 1980s gaming culture \u2013 Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Track & Field were staple machines \u2013 but their regulars, as here in Barcade in the northeast suburb of Highland Park, often referenced styles from the 1950s onwards.<\/p>\n

The project became a kind of quest: Bohbot went from borough to borough in the city and along the coast, searching out its joystick bars, acting on tipoffs and making lists of leads. It allowed him to draw an alternative map of the city, each location offering a new challenge, like levels of a video game. \u201cEvery arcade draws a slightly different crowd,\u201d he noted, \u201cfrom beachgoers and bar-hoppers to seriously committed gamers. The atmospheres vary, too \u2013 some bright, pristine, ordered; some dark, moody, covert.\u201d Several bar owners, passionate about their creations, welcomed him and his camera; other times he had to be more discreet.<\/p>\n

Back to the Arcade<\/a><\/em> by Franck Bohbot is published by Setanta Books (\u00a355)<\/a><\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nFranck Bohbot\u2019s photographs of the city\u2019s gaming spots depict a world of escapism familiar from American movies and art
\nFranck 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\u2019s video game bars, whose atmosphere he recognised from favourite adolescent films, including Terminator 2 and Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off. Having wandered into his first one, Blipsy\u2019s in Koreatown, he started chasing their escapist gloom. Several of the bars were bathed in light reminiscent of painter Edward Hopper\u2019s 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 \u2013 Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Track & Field were staple machines \u2013 but their regulars, as here in Barcade in the northeast suburb of Highland Park, often referenced styles from the 1950s onwards.
\nThe project became a kind of quest: Bohbot went from borough to borough in the city and along the coast, searching out its joystick bars, acting on tipoffs and making lists of leads. It allowed him to draw an alternative map of the city, each location offering a new challenge, like levels of a video game. \u201cEvery arcade draws a slightly different crowd,\u201d he noted, \u201cfrom beachgoers and bar-hoppers to seriously committed gamers. The atmospheres vary, too \u2013 some bright, pristine, ordered; some dark, moody, covert.\u201d Several bar owners, passionate about their creations, welcomed him and his camera; other times he had to be more discreet.
\nBack to the Arcade by Franck Bohbot is published by Setanta Books (\u00a355) Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franck Bohbot\u2019s photographs of the city\u2019s gaming spots depict a world of escapism familiar from American movies and art 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\u2019s video game bars, whose atmosphere he …<\/p>\n

The big picture: the neon allure of Los Angeles\u2019s video game bars<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}