Xavier Aragonès

“You know, gasoline stations always bring life to small towns. You’d always have someone pumping the gas, buying things at the shop or just stopping by to say hello and have a little chat with the employees.

But at some point the farmers’ co-op decided to build their own station so they could get cheaper fuel and from then things went downhill. I could not compete with their prices at all. In the end, the guys from the oil company came here and stripped all the place down and now I’m left with the remains.

According to the law, I’m not allowed to use this place for any other kind of business because the underground gas storage tanks are still there and it would be way too expensive for me to remove them safely… 

So you say you’re taking these photographs for a book? I bet you’ve found a few more stations like this!”

Former station owner. Torregrossa, Lleida, 2016

Apart from an obvious tribute to Ed Ruscha’s famous Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), this body of work is the result of treasure hunt in which I challenged myself to find all the unused gas stations I could find within the road network of Catalonia.

Twentysix Abandoned Catalan Gasoline Stations was published as a photobook in 2017 by now-defunct publishing house Camera Infinita. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy, please e-mail me.

The project was also featured as an exhibition in the Revela’t (2018, Barcelona) and Festimatge (2021, Calella) photo festivals.