One of the things that I photograph is neon signs -- these disappearing cultural relics of our not so distant past. They speak to the beauty of a time and place in America back before iPhones and computers and self driving cars. Back to a time when Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road -- and they were most definitely a part of the landscape of the great American road. Of course they drip with nostalgia, which is one helluva drug. As I've travelled America I've photographed them wherever and whenever I can. I research them, map them out and hunt them with my camera and my lenses. I plan specific road trips to shoot the ones that I know about that I am still missing. I've got over 27,000 photos at this point tagged "neon" in my Flickr account. I will probably have at least 100,000 by the time I die. As an adjunct to my own photography I started collecting old Kodachrome and other 35mm slides as a way to collect images of signs that are long gone that I can no longer photograph myself. This photograph in this post was a beauty that I found in my collecting. It's of a lit Blue Jay Motel at night. I've found a few photos of the Blue Jay Motel and this sign during the daytime, but I know of no other photograph in existence of this sign lit up at night. Motels of course are a favorite subject for neon signs. I've put together an album on @flickr specifically of these. I've got over 3,500 of them at this point: flickr.com/photos/thomash… I've also got many other collections of neon theaters and bars and restaurants, neon by this city or neon by that city. I'm going on my next roadtrip next month with my buddies @smoothdude and @ScottevestCEO -- from Las Vegas to Rapid City South, Dakota. There are a lot of neon signs in Nevada that I will shoot on this trip. I'm also looking forward to shooting the old Chief Theater sign in Pocatello, Idaho. The trip will cut through Yellowstone and the Tetons, up through Southern Montana, where there are so many more great neon signs, and of course pass through Sheridan, Wyoming to get The Mint Bar. There are several museums in America that collect signs. I've shot at several of these as well. There are signs at the Valley Relics Museum and the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles. I've shot those. I shot the museum up in the Dales in Oregon. There's a great sign collection at the City Museum in Vancouver. I've shot the boneyard in Las Vegas, although I'm not sure if I ever will go there again due to their hostile and unfriendly approach to photographers. I still need to photograph the sign museum in Ohio and there's another museum in Philadelphia. There are also a number of wonderful books of photographs of neon signs. I've collected many of these, here are 44 of them: flickr.com/search/?user_i…
@thomashawk We replaced the previous Basque Hotel box sign with a re-worked used neon sign we picked up in 1997. We also gave the box sign panels to a former owner's family.
@thomashawk One of the fascinating visual aspects of Vancouver nightlife I noticed is the incredible quality of the neon signs in that West Coast city. Someone, some tradespeople, some company, is doing an awesome job of keeping the art of neon alive in Vancouver. #GranvilleStreet #Vancouver
@thomashawk A meeting in May will decide if the two neon signs on the Palace Hotel will be replaced with LEDs (and progressives have been supporting neon) sfexaminer.com/news/business/…
@thomashawk My Dad shot this on Kodachrome in 1949 in Menlo Park CA… It was a drive-in on El Camino Real which burned down not long after the shot was taken… I have all legal right so DO NOT share this. It IS for sale in high-res…