Spin Cycle: San Franciscan’s Fascination with the Ennui of the Laundromat Leads to Laundry Runs on Four Continents (and Yuba City)

Fortunately for us, Gene Cutler didn’t put his camera through the wash when he visited Laundromats in France, Spain, China, Peru and elsewhere

By Joe Eskenazi

Shamble into a Laundromat and you’re often hit with a full load of gloom. A handful of sad sacks stand slack-shouldered, mesmerized by the repetitive sights and sounds of heavy machinery slowly incinerating their apparel. Desperate attempts to stave off boredom lead the Laundromat-doomed to read and re-read the very same newspaper pull-out ad displaying the various shoes on discount at Big 5 Sporting Goods in a sale concluded three weeks ago.

In short, it’s hard to imagine not having a better place to be than the Laundromat.

For Gene Cutler, San Francisco’s Laundromats always reminded him of Edward Hopper’s masterpiece of despair, “Nighthawks” (except with more moving parts).

“They’re such isolating places. There’s a minimum of interaction between people even though people have nothing to do while they’re waiting for their laundry. And yet everyone keeps to themselves,” says the 36-year-old biologist and Castro resident.

Like so many San Franciscans, Cutler attempted to stave off the despondency inherent in a trip to the Laundromat by attempting to wash his clothes in as many different city coin-ops as possible. So many Laundromats emit a bright, almost luminescent glow. They feel so welcoming. Surely Cutler would find a place that didn’t feel like a waiting room in the afterlife (with a Double Dragon machine).

And yet, once the clothes were disgorged into the machine and his eyes began tracing the familiar circles, he realized that, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a Laundromat is a Laundromat is a Laundromat.

Or is it? Armed with his camera, Cutler began ...

documenting the city’s wash-n-go’s, hoping to separate the good, bad and ugly when it came to Laundromat owners attempting to inject a little personality into their shops (an alarming number of Laundromats don’t even have names and are simply titled “Coin-Operated Laundry” or “Coin Wash Dry”). His quest soon took him throughout the state and even to Latin America, Europe and Asia (see it here).

“Overall, I think [foreign Laundromats] cover a similar spectrum of depression as the ones out here do,” he says with a chuckle. “You find cute ones, sad ones in foreign countries just as you do here. In China, though, I never saw a Laundromat – though you look around and see people’s laundry hanging out of every window in every city and town.”

Even if this is the first you’re reading of Cutler, you may be familiar with his work. He’s the guy who invented the “Name that Dictator/SitCom Character” game that you’ve almost certainly been forwarded in your e-mail. Millions of people have played his eerily prescient Web game, which has a way of guessing whether you’re thinking of Pol Pot or Potsie from “Happy Days.” When Howard Stern played on live radio in around 1999, it nearly crashed Cutler’s site, smalltime.com.

Cutler’s photo journey from Laundromat to “Lavomatique” (France) to “Lavanderia” (Spain, Mexico, Peru) captures the strange allure of these well-lit, humming oases of light -- with none of the negatives (i.e. having to sit around for an hour and wash and fold laundry). It’s a fascinating little tour of the world, sans its dirty laundry.

As for Cutler, he’s out of the Laundromat game.

“I have a great apartment now that has its own washing machine and dryer inside our building. It’s quite the luxury,” he says. And then he pauses.

“It’s not very photogenic, though.”

All photos | Courtesy of Gene Cutler, smalltime.com