According to Jessica Furseth, a journalist living in London, the Take Courage ghost sign’s original purpose was not to boost the confidence of young professionals but to get us to drink; it was a promotion for the local Courage Brewery, founded in 1787.1. Furseth interviewed me in July of 2017 for her article Chasing Ghost Signs: Searching for Fading Words in London, New York, Melbourne, and San Francisco which was featured in December 2017 for Hazlitt. The phrase had taken on a different meaning for Furseth when, at the moment she first saw this fading ad, she was going into a building for an interview for a job for which she got hired.
A similar billboard in the Bronx can still be seen elsewhere in New York City. These motivational signs were made to inspire people during the COVID-19 pandemic and were not advertising any products. For me, these fading messages have become a metaphor for survival for me since, like myself, many of these ads have long outlived their expected life span. Although this project doesn’t deal directly with HIV/AIDS, it is no accident I’ve chosen to document such a transitory and evanescent subject. Of the hundreds of ads I’ve photographed, many have already been covered up, vandalized, or destroyed. But still many silently cling to the walls of buildings, barely noticed by the rushing passersby.
