Image taken from Los Angeles Magazine's photo essay, "Sign Language".

On a recent visit to the House of Brews in San Fernando (In Library Plaza, next to San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles County library), I flipped through a discarded June 2009 issue of Los Angeles Magazine.

After reading  well written articles about Farrah Fawcett and the high price of the celebrity spotlight to an eye opening piece about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s failing as the mayor of Los Angeles as he makes himself ready to run for governor of California, I found a gem of a photo essay entitled “Sign Language“.

The selected images of billboard advertisement were taken from “The Billboard Show” at Gary Leonard’s gallery, “Take My Picture”. I consider these images as symbols of a by gone area. A time where adverting was less about marketing and ostentatiously pushing sex and more about kitsch, bright, bold, cheeky playfulness and art.

Leonard saved the original Kodak Kodachrome  slides from a date with Pacific Outdoor Advertising’s trash dumpster.  Now, over 100 of the subsequently developed prints are on display at his gallery, through the summer.

More Information

Take My Picture
860 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, 213.622.2256

Gallery Hours
mon-fri: 10am-2pm    mon, wed, Fri: 3-6pm
sat: noon-6pm  sun: noon-3pm

Los Angeles Magazine Slide Show: Sign Language: http://www.lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=15822

Take My Picture: http://www.takemypicture.com/TakeMyPicture.com/Home.html

Los Angeles Magazine Post Script: Sign Language  and Judy Cameron: http://lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=17302