Sale 2520 | Lot 378
(TRAFFIC ALERTS) Collection of 29 uniformly-composed photographs of cautionary roadside alert signs, each plastered with distracting advertising for Champion Spark Plugs, local radio stations, and hotels in the Ohio/Pennsylvania region. Nearly all of the photographs follow the same device of visual composition, showing a freestanding alert post fit with a flashing beacon towards one side of the frame, allowing for the sweeping bend or upcoming intersection to be seen on the opposite side. Some views show passing automobiles, abstracted in a whooshing blur of motion, while others capture the vehicles in a dead standstill. Oddly, the cautionary warning signs were also considered prime real estate for advertisers and likely distracted the passing motorists from the nearing junctions and curves. Silver prints, the images measuring approximately 8x10 inches (20.3x25.4 cm.), a few with notations or respective roadmap diagrams, in pencil, on verso. 1920s-40s
[800/1,200]
