A fading ad for Reckitt's Blue, a blue substance once used in laundry to tint whites slightly blue, which was seen as more white-looking than whites with a yellowish tint. The ad is on a building on Washington Avenue between Pacific and Dean streets in Brooklyn. (Frank Jump)
NEW YORK—Famed photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975) saw the beauty in New York City’s “ghost ads.” The once brilliantly colored paintings advertising all sorts of obsolete wares—like a fig and syrup children’s laxative—now fading into the cityscape.
Evans shot some of the fading murals of his day, and a new generation of artists now captures the fading works, often delving into the stories behind them.
Brooklyn photographer Frank Jump began documenting what he calls the city’s “fading ads” after he learned in 1986 that he was HIV positive.
“I was documenting something that never expected to live so long, and I didn’t expect to live so long,” said Jump, who has compiled his work into a book titled “Fading Ads of New York City.” – READ MORE
by Tara MacIsaac
New York Editor
Editorial Department
The Epoch Times
Buildings’ Fading Ads Come With Lingering Tales | New York City | United States | Epoch Times.
