Actor, artist, and collector Dennis Hopper took this quintessential Los Angeles photograph with a 35mm Nikon that his then-wife, Brooke Hayward, had given him as a present for his twenty-fifth birthday. As Hopper paused in his 1964 Corvair at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and North Doheny Drive, his lens captured a welter of signage, telephone wires, commercial architecture, and vehicles through the windshield; a reflection of another car in the rear-view mirror; and a glimpse of sky through the sunroof. This disorderly environment offered up a brilliantly precise, punning title: Double Standard.
Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker, and photographer known for his rebellious spirit and countercultural influence. He gained fame for his roles in films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Easy Rider (1969), which he also directed, and Apocalypse Now (1979). During the 1960s, however, his erratic behavior had made him toxic in Hollywood. He found an outlet for his energy and imagination in L.A.’s burgeoning art scene. He not only documented it with his camera—making an estimated 18,000 photographs over a six-year period—but also collected works by artists including Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. Hopper’s Double Standard was used for the invitation to Ruscha’s second solo exhibition, held in 1964 at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
Britt Salvesen
2025
