PROJECTS > Advertise Here > A continuation of the Blank Billboards Project

In 2008, I started noticing an increasing number of blank billboards in the Chicagoland area. These large monochromatic surfaces in black, white or gray contrasted with the busy, ornate, and often tarnished facades in which they’re imbedded. As a visual manifestation of the financial crisis, the blank billboards were eerily like a flat cardiogram as businesses kept slashing their advertisement budgets. I was intrigued by this new reality: billboards that once broadcast the promise of products and services had now become enigmatic question marks, almost inviting viewers to fill in these screens with their own projections.

Working with a 4X5 inch view camera, I spent several years tracking these billboards, sometimes returning to the same location at night to rephotograph a billboard I had captured during daytime. As a graphic artist working in advertisement and hospitality sectors, I’d done my share of contributing to the content of billboards. This project gives me an opportunity to explore an environment where that commercial voice is muted while the empty frame left behind is in dialogue with its urban context.