Signs: Photographs by Jim Dow

Description

Hardcover | 28.5 x 1.8 x 28.5 cm | 120 pp

Yale University Press | 2022 |9780300264012

Vivid, clear-sighted images of American vernacular signage and architecture encountered along old US highways showcase the early black-and-white work of the acclaimed photographer Jim Dow.Dow (b. 1942) is renowned for photographs that depict the built environmenthe first gained attention for his panoramic triptychs of baseball stadiumsand for his skill at conveying the human ingenuity and spirit that suffuse the spaces.

This book is the first to focus on Dows early black-and-white pictures, featuring more than 60 photographs made between 1967 and 1977, a majority of which have never before been published. Indebted to the work of Walker Evans, a key mentor of Dows, these photographs depict time-worn signage taken from billboards, diners, gas stations, drive-ins, and other small businesses. While still recognisable as icons of commercial Americana, without their context Dows signs impart ambiguous messages, often situated between documentation and abstraction.

Including a new essay by Dow that reveals his own perspective on the development of the work,Signssuggests how these formative years honed the artists sensibility and conceptual approach.