Empty Signage

Calling Attention to Nothing

el sereno

“I think to myself that some people take photographs as a way to not really see. I wonder if I’m one of those people, or if I take photographs as a way to pay attention, to have the tiniest window through which to look closely.”¹

from top right: highland park, death valley, joshua tree, suvarnabhumi airport double empty billboards in bangkok, lincoln heights, cypress park, manhattan beach, glassel park, downtown la, york boulevard, chinatown, boyle heights

‘my sentinels’ (the line of palm trees distinctly visible from the traffic circle at the base of the la river bike path and most of the frogtown, lincoln heights, cypress park, and montecito heights neighborhoods, adjacent to the 5 and 110 crossing over the train tracks) briefly framed by iHOP signage temporarily under construction and foregrounded by a regular food truck popping up on figueroa in cypress park

Noticing empty signs is a practice of documenting the ones that are not trying to sell me anything. Sometimes this is merely a product of market forces, a coincidence of relatively low real estate values and proximity to other forms of vacant property. Even if their blankness is temporary, it’s convenient to my practice of archiving if I’ve dérive’d across it. This assortment is designated by either their specific los angeles neighborhood or city, or by their location elsewhere on earth.

from top: lincoln heights, k town, cypress park, chinatown

from right: el sereno, huntington dr s, n broadway lincoln heights

from top right: pico union, south la, koreatown, highland park, cypress park, silverlake, lincoln heights, figueroa

from right: eagle rock, pasadena ave lincoln heights, echo park

chinatown

1. Kate Zambreno. Drifts. Riverhead Books, 2020. Print.