Vanishing Icons of "Americana"
By J. Harris
24 April 2008
As a child growing up in the west, I remember many road trips to the desert, mountain and coastal communities of the West and Southwestern states. Along these routes you will find a number of vintage american signs that are vanishing. We used to play games with them: A-Z was one of our favorites. The entertainment value has been something of a highway trend for many years. I was always interested in "road" scenery, whether it was the landscape or the signs that dotted the landscape along the freeways and highways. Traveling via highway is something many people have forgotten as air travel has become the standard mode of transportation, and this has had a direct impact on odd vintage signs and a style that is quickly vanishing in America.
As an adult, I find myself drawn to these oddities for photography and posterity. They seem to say something of a bygone era and I believe many will have vanished in the next ten years as growth and real estate prices put many of the small businesses out. The Giant "W-Marts and Depots" have very little characteristic signs and are disposable, just as we have become in our use-and-throw-out culture.
YESCO, One of the most influential sign companies in the country is located here in Salt Lake City, and Utah is ground zero for many of these unusual artistic sign projects. We are all familiar with the Welcome to Las Vegas and the NBC Globe in New York. YESCO is the company that brought many of these iconic images, which are quickly vanishing. I have been documenting many of their signs over the years and would like to share a vision of glamorous times and some oddities that may spark an interest and nostalgia for other photographers to document this vanishing media style.
"I can almost smell the exhaust fumes in the back of our 69' station wagon, where's the Dramamine".
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