‘Vacant Lot #1 (Anaheim)’ 1970/2003 was an out-take from Ruscha’s shooting sessions for Real Estate Opportunities (1970), an artist book of 25 photographs. It showed deadpan views of banal, empty lots of land with potential for growth in and around Los Angeles. He printed this work in 2003 along with three others from the 1970s to create the ‘Vacant Lot Series’ 1970/2003. Ruscha gives us the location for this image, taken in Anaheim, so it becomes a document of a real place which has since been altered by developers over time. He has frequently referenced the classic American ‘road trip’ as explored here and documented his travels in and around the United States.