The I-70 Series
The I-70 series documents the remnants of abandoned service stations along Interstate 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City, two cities that mark the eastern and western boundaries of Missouri. This stretch of highway, cutting a nearly straight line across the state, offers a quiet narrative of transience and obsolescence.
As I traveled this route, I was drawn to the skeletal remains of fuel and service stations that once served as vital waypoints. Now vacant and crumbling, these structures stand like silent monoliths disconnected from their original function, yet visually powerful in their decay. They embody themes I return to often in my work: impermanence, disuse, and the erosion of purpose over time.
Stripped of utility and nearly invisible to the hurried traveler, these buildings still assert a presence. They form a kind of gauntlet along the road, quiet, inert, and strangely dignified. I see in them a quiet elegance, a composition in decomposition, and a meditation on what remains when function fades.. - Steven Duede