Toastmaster Cafe, Globe, AZ MPitzer 2008 (18.5x12.5)

Mike Pitzer

United States

6 artworks

Every major city to small village, from East to West, North to South, was all adorned with amazing, colorful creations of metal, paint, type, and lights — the neon sign. Today, if they remain at all, they are usually rusted, broken, and looked on by residents as an eyesore to the image of their communities. There is something tremendously beautiful about these rusted pieces of signage, and for the past 30 years, I've been documenting their beauty. Many of these signs no longer exist except in my images, ergo the title of my self-published book, "Signs of a Changing America." Out of the thousands of images I've taken, a small group possesses that interesting combination of texture and color that makes them interesting to look at. And of those images, only a handful rise up to the level of what I call art, as they possess that magical combination of elements that allows me to transform them from a photograph documenting their deterioration into a piece of art worthy of framing.