Many, many decades ago, during an extended economic calamity, legions of displaced souls, mostly men, wandered the nation, chasing work, food, shelter … any remnants of their humanity.
They’d ride the rails, hitchhike, tramp the long roads of America. When they came to a new town they wanted the dope: friendly, welcoming. open-hearted; or more likely: mean sheriff, fierce dogs, little affordable food, too many dark eyes under slanted fedoras, too many sprawling shadows within which anything could happen.
Men before them scrawled images of information on posts and bridges, carved into trees, slapdashed with paint: so-called hobo signs alerting the men about what to expect.
In the 2020s, New York City’s outdoor walls, doorways, billboards, placards, and windows bloom with scrawls, meanings not often clear, exactly whom they’re for elusive.
But there they are.
This photobook, Hobo Signs, records these contemporary oft-mysterious signs, and pairs them with oft-inscrutable images.
What news does this book bring? What promises? What warnings?
The codes are all around us, teasing, taunting, trembling with meaning. They ask only one question: Can we decode them in time?
Many, many decades ago, during an extended economic calamity, legions of displaced souls, mostly men, wandered the nation, chasing work, food, shelter … any remnants of their humanity.
They’d ride the rails, hitchhike, tramp the long roads of America. When they came to a new town they wanted the dope: friendly, welcoming. open-hearted; or more likely: mean sheriff, fierce dogs, little affordable food, too many dark eyes under slanted fedoras, too many sprawling shadows within which anything could happen.
Men before them scrawled images of information on posts and bridges, carved into trees, slapdashed with paint: so-called hobo signs alerting the men about what to expect.
In the 2020s, New York City’s outdoor walls, doorways, billboards, placards, and windows bloom with scrawls, meanings not often clear, exactly whom they’re for elusive.
But there they are.
This photobook, Hobo Signs, records these contemporary oft-mysterious signs, and pairs them with oft-inscrutable images.
What news does this book bring? What promises? What warnings?
The codes are all around us, teasing, taunting, trembling with meaning. They ask only one question: Can we decode them in time?
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