Ben Hassett: Beer. Soda. Lotto.

Ben Hassett: Beer. Soda. Lotto. David Hill Gallery, London 30 September–18 December 2021Carrie Scott and David Hill are pleased to present beer.Soda.Lotto, a long-standing photographic series byBenHassett. The exhibition marksHassett’s first solo show and will open on 30th September at David Hill Gallery in Notting Hill, west London. With Los Angeles’ liquor stores as his only subject, the photographer has gathered a photographic survey as painterly as it is forensic. Part sunlit utopia, part cool analysis of a city on the edge, Beer. Soda. Lotto. is a poetic and unparalleled portrait of Los Angeles.

Fundamentally embedded in a history of street photography–one that sees a nod to GarryWinogrand’s visual cacophony and Ed Ruscha’s calm distance–the compositions celebrate the beauty of LA;breath-taking light fills each image, punctuating every corner and facade. Hassetthasa signature and singular ability to capture and create colour so seductive it hardly feels real. This is his intent. The impossible runs through each composition; where people should be, there are empty streets filled only with buildings bathed in the brilliant desert light. As a result, this work is more about the act of looking, than the actual streets and buildings, the viewer is looking at. Hassett’s compositions are about the edges, the colour, the play between decay and beauty.