Electronic Billboards

The electronic billboard has enabled companies to post multiple advertisements on a monitor one would ordinarily find in a theater. Glowing images cycle through these screens on average of one every five seconds. Ads from casinos, law firms, restaurants, religious organizations and other local happenings are among the most common along Interstate 70 from the border of Illinois to the border of Kansas.   In early 2014, inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto's brilliant Theatres series, I began making 30 minute exposures of electronic billboards along the I-70 corridor between St. Louis and Kansas City. A long exposure records all these cycling advertisements which overexposes the whole billboard screen. The resulting photograph renders the billboards as a simple white light and portrays the highway free from these roadside distractions.

Commercial interests seek to access our lives as often and in as many places as possible. This has become remarkably easy due to technological advancements. Communication in the digital age almost requires one to keep a portable computer on hand or person at all times. This, of course, has become the primary channel for mass marketers. However, even the spaces where we are legally prohibited from using such devices, mainly while driving, has become a landscape for even greater commercial saturation.
 
The electronic billboard has enabled companies to post multiple advertisements on a monitor one would ordinarily find in a theater. Glowing images cycle through these screens on average of one every five seconds. Ads from casinos, law firms, restaurants, religious organizations and other local happenings are among the most common along Interstate 70 from the border of Illinois to the border of Kansas.
 
In early 2014, inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto's brilliant Theatres series, I began making 30 minute exposures of electronic billboards along the I-70 corridor between St. Louis and Kansas City. A long exposure records all these cycling advertisements which overexposes the whole billboard screen. The resulting photograph renders the billboards as a simple white light and portrays the highway free from these roadside distractions.