from the forthcoming book - The Fading Ads of NYC - The History Press © Frank H. Jump
Cigarettes
Merit(?) Cigarettes – (if memory serves) – near Tompkins Avenue & Madison, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn 2000
© Frank H. Jump
“Wonderfully Great”
“Winning on Merit”
My memory (and digital archiving notes) aren’t what they used to be, but while combing through some of my archived photo library (file management nightmares), I pulled up this image and remembered the day I took these images. There was a luncheonette I believe below that was selling household food items that was owned by a local resident for four decades. I asked if I could get on her roof to shoot this and she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but I could go ahead and climb. Next door there was an antique shop that had better egress to the roof and he said it was OK too. After shooting this, the woman asked why this project was so important and I asked how long she had owned her business (forty years) and how often she looked at the fading cigarette ad (she has never noticed it before). Enough was said. She got it.
