Last month we spent our annual family vacation in Schliersee, Germany. This is a small lakeside village about an hour’s drive outside Munich—you can actually take the train directly into the city for a day’s worth of museum-hopping in just under an hour.
Given that we’ve come here every year since Anna was born, you’d think I would have photographed enough mountains, lakes, flowers and plates of käsespätzle to last me for awhile. True—but, something I love to photograph, especially when I’m away from home, are signs. Street signs, shop signs, building signs…I think they uniquely capture a sense of identity and location. Of course, it’s even better when they’re quirky little signs like this one hanging outside a local guesthouse.
(And even better when you manage to capture the one blue-sky day in the entire week, which was otherwise full of rain, rain, rain!)
As a side note: Earlier in the month I was in Frankfurt and stopped by the Museum für Kommunikation (Communications Museum), which covers styles and technologies in communication from Mesopotamian writing tablets to the postal system to texting. I really enjoyed the “Signs, Writing, News” section, which talked about how simple signs with pictographs were instrumental in directing a largely illiterate population in the past. Fascinating—and such a fun spin on this week’s photography, too!
What about you—do you ever take photos of signs, either on vacation or around home? I’d love to hear!
Happy Friday!
You sign is super cool. I take pic of signs when I am hiking so I can remember the trail name and signs of cities I visit. When on a supervised tour, I also take signs of the tour sites. This is so helpful when I revisit the photos to help me recall exactly where I have been. If I see an interesting sign, I will take a photo or a simple sign in a weird location, like a ‘do not enter’ sign in front of a door and the bottom of stairs.
Great idea to take photos of signs to help you remember where you’ve been. And yes, I love signs posted in weird locations, or signs that have funny or strange messages!
I love your work I like to see somebody different like me because I am artist and I admire your work xx juliet