Signs

Images by Richard ‘Rick Mack’ McCloskey

Studies in light might be a good way to talk about the signs along the boulevard, but they are also a snapshot of the businesses that existed at the time, few of which still remain today. I have always been interested in the strange variations and effects of florescent lighting. So many of the signs, then and now, utilize florescent tubes to deliver their message, and that light often plays out to light the street and sidewalks and add an unintended strangeness to visible surfaces, as well as to the tone of the people and cars in my photographs. More than one of these images display a juxtaposition of different types of signs that may be impossible to duplicate today. How wonderful are these signs gone by: ‘Mobil Gasoline,’ ‘Air Bail Bonds,’ ‘A New Expression of Our Pride’(Continental Airlines), ‘Big Boy,’ ‘Coppertone,’ ‘Donuts In The Night,’ ‘What A Spaceport,’ ‘Mambo Drive-In,’ ‘Bruce Wolfe For Congress,’ Sylmar Liquor,’ and who can forget, ‘Wilkins Pontiac?’