Signs of Life in America is a series of color photographs of signs I have encountered as a variety of three-dimensional figures including fiberglass objects, inflatable animals and people in costume. With my sense of humor and documentary style photography, I look at the ways in which these signs are used and what they mean to the viewer. I am interested in exploring ideas about advertising as a reference to contemporary life in America.
Through my composition I emphasize a type of signage invented long ago to attract illiterate customers from a distance. These signs stand in place of salespeople, often taking on human forms that beckon to the visitor in a pedestrian or roadside landscape. I investigate angles, color, light and shadows, thereby highlighting characters who present visually welcoming gestures to their potential clientele.
Although the invitation to come inside is understood, I am concerned with capturing the temptation suggested by the objects I photograph from the outside of each business location. Some people enter stores based on intriguing signage; instead, I stop the clock to show in photographs my appreciation of American ingenuity and salesmanship, yet I remain an observer. I include the occasional passerby in my images, paying close attention to their movements and the colors they wear with respect to the surroundings.
My project documents the creative communication of expectation and joy so commonly found in advertising and sales. I have been lucky to live in two of the country’s, and the world’s, centers of advertising and to travel throughout the United States of America. Here I have found an abundance of unusual, wacky signs in communities near my home cities of New York and Chicago, and at my vacation destinations.
Witnessing people’s reactions to the signs is fascinating. Some pedestrians tune out society’s constant barrage of advertisements and obliviously walk by even the most absurd objects that confront them on the street; others show pleasure or surprise. By photographing specific American entrepreneurs’ advertising, I recreate the experiences of passersby. I intend to catch the attention of viewers who might have overlooked imaginative signs that I transform in my photographic interpretations of alluring scenes.
This collection consists of more than 80 photographs from ten states. A majority of my images are from New York and Illinois, where I have lived most of my adult life. I began shooting my Signs of Life in America series in the mid-1990’s. My cameras are a Yashica 124-G and a square format Holga, both very compatible with the street photography aesthetic.
Through my composition I emphasize a type of signage invented long ago to attract illiterate customers from a distance. These signs stand in place of salespeople, often taking on human forms that beckon to the visitor in a pedestrian or roadside landscape. I investigate angles, color, light and shadows, thereby highlighting characters who present visually welcoming gestures to their potential clientele.
Although the invitation to come inside is understood, I am concerned with capturing the temptation suggested by the objects I photograph from the outside of each business location. Some people enter stores based on intriguing signage; instead, I stop the clock to show in photographs my appreciation of American ingenuity and salesmanship, yet I remain an observer. I include the occasional passerby in my images, paying close attention to their movements and the colors they wear with respect to the surroundings.
My project documents the creative communication of expectation and joy so commonly found in advertising and sales. I have been lucky to live in two of the country’s, and the world’s, centers of advertising and to travel throughout the United States of America. Here I have found an abundance of unusual, wacky signs in communities near my home cities of New York and Chicago, and at my vacation destinations.
Witnessing people’s reactions to the signs is fascinating. Some pedestrians tune out society’s constant barrage of advertisements and obliviously walk by even the most absurd objects that confront them on the street; others show pleasure or surprise. By photographing specific American entrepreneurs’ advertising, I recreate the experiences of passersby. I intend to catch the attention of viewers who might have overlooked imaginative signs that I transform in my photographic interpretations of alluring scenes.
This collection consists of more than 80 photographs from ten states. A majority of my images are from New York and Illinois, where I have lived most of my adult life. I began shooting my Signs of Life in America series in the mid-1990’s. My cameras are a Yashica 124-G and a square format Holga, both very compatible with the street photography aesthetic.