Roadside Signs – Photography

While I’ve rarely seen signs by Henry Harrison Mayes in snapshots, his work and that of other, even more anonymous sign makers is often documented by professional photographers (see With Signs Following, by Joe York).

Here is a list of photographers with an interest in vernacular religious signs in the US.

Meryl Truett

Meryl Truett is a fine art photographer and mixed media artist whose work is exhibited and collected worldwide.  She graduated in 2003 with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design with additional art training in France.  She has received numerous awards including an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. (source)

Sam Fentress

Sam Fentress is an architectural photographer who took on the side quest of photographing religious roadside signs on his trips. In 2007 he published the book “Bible Road” with his collected work spanning 25 years, starting in the early eighties.

Here’s how good this book of photographs is: I have no idea if Sam Fentress is a Christian—of any stripe—or not. He might be a nonbeliever. He could be a holy roller. There is simply no way to tell from looking at his pictures. Which gives some inkling of how dispassionate they are. Whoever took these photographs of roadside testimony (JESUS SAVES and all the variations) did so with no ax to grind, no point of view to push. What the photographer does have is a keen set of eyes for the American landscape, both the part built by humans and the natural world with which the manmade part coexists so uneasily. And while there is no mockery here, there are plenty of occasions for a smile: Hail Marys in the form of Burma Shave signs, pictures of Jesus on spare-tire covers, scripture on truck mudflaps and the numerous signs blending religious exhortations and sales pitches for more earthly wares: JESUS SAID YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN JOHN 3-7 AREA SIZE RUG SALE 20% OFF. But long after you’ve stopped smiling, you’ll still be thinking about the zeal that pushed people to proclaim their faith on every conceivable surface available to them. And once you get over remarking on the subject matter, you’ll stop and notice just what a fine, understated photographer Fentress is.

Review by Malcom Jones for Newsweek

• Driving Down Bible Road, Camera in Hand, NPR Interview
• USA Today
• CBS News

Michael Wriston

Baltimore-based photographer Michael Wriston has his own photo series of vernacular religious signs titled Road to Damascus which illustrates the creativity and fervor to get out the gospel.

Roger May

Roger May is a photographer and writer based in West Virginia. He is the Director of Artistic Programs for Appalshop. May, as a native of the coal mining region of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, is familiar with Mayes work, and he helped me to locate some markers and contributed photos.