From the book Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump
Notice the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS banner in the lower left corner. World AIDS Day is Coming! Everyday is World AIDS Day @ Fading Ad Blog
Fading Ads of NYC – the book
In Memoriam – Sandra Walker, RI – Royal Institute Watercolourist Extraordinaire
www.sandrawalkerri.com
On Friday I was saddened to hear from Sandra Walker’s daughter Jessica that her mother had died this past August 23rd 2018, three months after being diagnosed with cancer. Attached with this email message was a jpeg of the watercolor below of a fading ad for a 5 cent cigar with the image of a early 20th century man with the tag line, “I Am For Men.”
© Sandra Walker, RI
Ten years ago this December 20, Sandra Walker, RI sent me this image of a fading ad she had taken in Denver, CO while with her daughter Jessica.
© Sandra Walker, RI
The image was here in Denver in 2002, I think. We were exiting a restaurant and across the street was a construction site and this had been uncovered when they demolished a building. My mom was thrilled when we saw it and basically stopped traffic to get a shot of it from the middle of Santa Fe Drive. It was right in the arts district of Denver. It’s since been covered up again. – Jessica Walker
© Sandra Walker, RI
Just a few years after UK’s Guardian had published my photographs in the May 23, 1999 edition of the London Observer, I received a card with this image of Omega Oil, the first fading ad I ever photographed.
© Sandra Walker RI
note from Sandra Walker
Dear Mr. Jump-
Several years ago a friend sent me a newspaper clipping of your photography – which mirrors the work I do in watercolour. Last year I went to Harlem in search of the wonderful “Omega Oil” building – & found it – & painted it.
I just wanted to say thank you for the inspiration!
With best wishes-
Sandra Walker
The rest is multimedia history. We maintained a steady correspondence and when I launched the Fading Ad Blog, I began to feature Walker’s photographs and watercolour renderings of fading ads. I documented our collaboration in my subsequent book, Fading Ads of New York City (History Press, 2011) and included the watercolour of Omega Oil as well as that of Hams & Capocolli from the Brooklyn waterfront.
© Sandra Walker, RI
In 2012, Sandra and I traded art pieces and I sent her a framed photograph of a shot of a derelict factory in Montréal Canada which she later painted.
Guardians of Rust
Original watercolor by Sandra Walker RI based on Guardians of Rust (photo by Frank H. Jump 2012)
© Frank H. Jump
In return of this gift Sandra sent me a watercolor of one of my fading ads Mount Morris Baths which hangs in our Brooklyn apartment.
Watercolour of Mount Morris Baths from Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011) © Sandra Walker RI
Two years after the publication of Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011), I was approached by the art & set designer of the TV production of the Fox network’s GLEE in February of 2013 for permission to use one of my photographs and Walker’s Omega Oil on their sets.
Sandra Walker’s Omega Oil watercolour as it was featured in an episode of Glee.
Of course, Sandra was thrilled to give her permission to use her image- and so our joint media spotlight shone that much longer spilling onto a different stage as it was also covered by Entertainment Weekly Magazine.
In one of our penultimate correspondences in January of 2017, Sandra sent me an email with an attachment of this lovely watercolour:
© Sandra Walker RI
“Wall of Dreams”
I found this crumbling wall in a derelict area of Manchester (UK – not New Hampshire). It seemed to speak eloquently of the dreams that Messrs Hall and Rogers must once have had…judging from their array of merchandise, e.g., fireplaces, sanitary ware, catering equipment, etc.
Thanks Frank. I’m glad you like it.
Best,
Sandra x
In our last email correspondence on August 18, 2017 – just a year almost to the date of her death, we talked about the results of the last American presidential election and how things have become unhinged. Sandra included this magnificent image of a building she painted in Madrid:
Madrid, Spain © Sandra Walker RI
She wrote:
…the other is an older painting by me of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Have you been there? My second favourite bldg…first being the Chrysler.
xxx
Sandra
© Sandra Walker RI
I told her how fond I was of Spain and how Vincenzo and I considered selling everything and moving there until after some sanity was restored in the US. I lamented that I would have to wait until I retire in five years, “if we could all make it until then.”
- Click through this hyperlink to see all of the postings on the blog that involved Sandra Walker RI which also includes some of the work she based on Banksy in Brick Lane London, and other photographs and paintings that were featured.
From Facebook page – Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Fading Ad Campaign: The Chrome Age – and the future of the Fading Ad Blog
prototype book cover prior to 2011 History Press publication © Frank H. Jump
This was the first design I worked on before getting the publishing deal with the History Press, now bought by Arcadia Press. For the first nine years of the Fading Ad Blog, I posted obsessively daily and enjoyed a large following of over 500 visitors a day. The past year has been a rough one personally and I have posted more sporadically. I am also contemplating the future of blogging in general.
As this year draws to an end, I am self-reflective and open to suggestions from my audience and collaborators. The social media explosion has certainly impacted blogging and I have enjoyed my forays into Instagram and Twitter. But where do we go from here in an era of uncertainty where the Internet is about to undergo an overhaul by service providers with the end of Net Neutrality. So please feel free to express your opinions about the future of blogging, this blog and how you would like to see this project transform in the coming year. Thank you for all of your support and contributions from all of my guest featured contributors and followers. Happy New Year and keep looking up!
Sincerely yours,
Frank H. Jump
Bob Pins Posting – Ten Years Ago on the Fading Ad Blog
March 1997 Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
Bob Pins Fresco has held up pretty good in the last ten years (twenty). Luck of a northern exposure.
Harry’s Department Store Revisited – Excerpts from The Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011)
As seen in The Fading Ads of New York City (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump
Harry’s Department Store/Aufrecht Insurance & Real Estate
“It’s Harry’s Department Store for the Greatest Values” Graham & Metropolitan Avenues
I’ve spent more time staring at this image in particular than almost any other sign I’ve documented. It is not for any other reason than the four foot by six foot reproduction that hung at the WAH Center Exhibition in 2000 hangs in my office in my country home. I’ve often wondered who the man on the left was and where the large woman with the teal colored sweat suit was going. At first, I didn’t even realize there was a man on the left since the slide positive was scanned initially in the cardboard frame in which it is housed, which cuts almost a millimeter of information from the image, thus cropping it slightly. When the positive was removed from the cardboard sleeve to be scanned for this large-scale reproduction, suddenly the man in the short-sleeved polo shirt and grey slacks appeared.
Department store owner, Harry also has been a mystery to me. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of Harry’s Department Store in any of the online archives I’ve searched. Kevin Walsh conveniently provided a link to the wedding announcement of Jacob M. Aufrecht that was scanned and uploaded by Tom Tryniski, in an extensive online archive he calls Old Fulton NY Post Cards. Normally this wedding announcement, which states the usual familial and temporal information would seem quite unremarkable:
Berger – Aufrecht
Miss Elise Berger, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Emanuel Berger of 660 West 180th st., Manhattan, and Jacob M. Aufrecht, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Aufrecht of 551 East 53d st., Brooklyn, will be married at the Hotel Astor on Sunday evening Oct 27, by Rabbi Alexander Lyons of the Eighth Avenue Temple.The bride will be attended by Miss Helen Welkersheimer. Max Abrams of Brooklyn will be the best man. Following a motor trip to Canada, the couple will reside at 551 East 53d st., Flatbush. Miss Berger is a graduate of Columbia University. Mr. Aufrecht is engaged in the real estate business. – The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday October 10, 1929
Totally mundane in its details, this wedding announcement would never have struck a chord until I noticed the date that the bride and groom were to be wed. The Thursday afternoon before their wedding is known as Black Thursday (Black Friday in Europe due to the time difference). The Monday & Tuesday after their wedding are remembered as “Black” days as well. One could only wonder if the newlyweds ever went on their Canadian road-trip after a nuptial weekend that landed smack in the middle of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, precipitating the Great Depression. As I write this on a similar weekend, Standard & Poors downgraded the United States was from a Triple A to an AA+ credit rating. Life goes on. Doesn’t it? – Taken from The Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump
Yes. Life does go on. Obama saved our asses. Let’s watch Trump drill them back into the ground.
Above is the remnant building of Jacob M. Aufrecht on 286 Graham Avenue © Frank H. Jump
Fulton History Archive
JPEG from original hi-res scanned full-frame TIFF © Frank H. Jump
Fading Ad Blog Celebrates A Decade of Blogging!
M. Rappoport’s Music Store – Jamaica Avenue, Queens – taken August, 1997 – “4109 Jamaica Ave. near Woodhaven Ave.” © Frank H. Jump, Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011)
Since I launched this blog in March of 2007 as an assignment for my second Masters program in Instructional Technology (initially as an addendum to my Fading Ad Campaign website which launched in February 1999), I didn’t expect to have continued blogging for ten years. Granted, I have shifted from a compulsive daily photo blogger to an occasional poster. Much of this relaxed posting schedule was a result of Enzo and I selling our home last June in Flatbush and moving into an apartment. Also, the daily stress of being a care-giver to two aging parents while balancing a career and a fulfilling marriage has also become a challenge. I have refrained from posting with frequency the political content as I have in the past, while other formats like Twitter and Instagram have also diverted some of my attention from the blog – although all of my social media activity can be viewed on FAB.
After my first Internet presence started getting noticed in February 1999, blogs soon became the rage. Now, the proliferation of Tumblr is starting to wane while other social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter have continued to flourish. Still looking forward to future collaborations with other urban documentarians here at FAB and your insightful and supportive comments are always welcomed.
Meet the ghost-sign hunters | Cities | The Guardian | Melbourne – Nick Gadd
The Omega Oil sign in New York. Often these adverts are hidden for decades by buildings, billboards or trees – reappearing briefly during a construction project, before they are destroyed forever. Photograph: Frank Jump
READ MORE: Meet the ghost-sign hunters | Cities | The Guardian.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Ghost signs from around the world
