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February, 2012:

Auto Alley – East Cermak & South Indiana – Chicago, IL

Feb 20th, 2012
by Frank.
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© Frank H. Jump

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

Fading Ads of New York City | WFUV Radio

Feb 19th, 2012
by Frank.
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Fading Ads of New York City

From Fading Ads of New York City - History Press © Frank H. Jump

Photographer Frank Jump documents NYC’s “ghost signs.”

By George Bodarky 
Saturday, February 18, 2012 – 7:30am

New York City’s saturated with advertisements.  They’re on buses, in the subways, atop taxis, and along highways.  But, it’s not the newest Calvin Klein ad that catches the attention of acclaimed photographer and urban documentarian Frank Jump.

He likes to document so-called ghost signs in the city.  These ads from a bygone era are visible, but often overlooked — and for Jump, they’re also a metaphor for his own long survival with HIV.  Several of Jump’s photographs are included in a new book called Fading Ads of New York City. Jump is our guest on this week’s Cityscape.

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Fading Ads of New York City | WFUV Radio.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-19

Feb 19th, 2012
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Looking Up to Look Back: The Fading Ads of New York – WFUV-WNET – MetroFocus

Feb 18th, 2012
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BOOKS

Looking Up to Look Back: The Fading Ads of New York

George Bodarky and Sarah Berson | February 17, 2012 4:04 AM
Author: Frank Jump
Publisher: The History Press
Publication Date: Nov. 2011

In 1986, when Frank Jump was 26 years old, he was diagnosed as HIV positive. It was a time when doctors still knew little of the disease. They estimated Jump only had a few years left to live.

The doctors were wrong. Nearly 10 years after his diagnosis, things started looking up for Jump — literally.

In 1997, he “discovered” an ad for Omega Oil, a cure-all tonic, painted on the side of a New York City building. It was the beginning of a quest to photograph old ads painted or glued to the sides of city buildings, ads he views as relics of New York’s past. The quest has consumed Jump ever since.

“New York is a never-ending process,” Jump explained in an interview with WFUV’s Cityscape. “Building and reconstruction and renovation of New York is constant. As new buildings go up and old buildings come down, there’s going to be new ads revealed. It’s exciting to watch. I think this will be something I do until the day I die.”

Jump has displayed his collection of photographs of faded ads in museums and recently compiled them into a book, “Fading Ads of New York City.”

As Jump entered his second decade with HIV, he said that the decaying ads came to represent the friends he lost to AIDS. “I’ve watched many, many, many, many people die. I even have address books with telephone numbers that I just stapled shut because everybody in it was gone,” said Jump.

Click below to hear Cityscape host George Bodarky’s interview with Frank Jump about the fading ads project:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The artists who painted the ads, some of which go back to the late 19th century, were called “wall dogs.” When Jump began publishing photographs of the ads on his blog, fadingad.com, several of the “wall dogs” contacted him from their nursing homes.

Jump, who is now 52, will stop at nothing in his quest to shoot the ads. He has scaled rickety fire escapes, pulled over on busy highways and walked along elevated train tracks. Jump admits to faking appointments in certain buildings to get up to the roof and even outrunning guard dogs to get the right angle in the right light.

“This book tells two stories,” wrote Dr. Andrew Irving, an anthropologist, in the book’s foreward. “That of New York City and its obsession with money, advertising and renewal over the last 150 years; and the story of the life of a teacher and photographer who has dedicated much of his time to documenting and archiving the hundreds of gigantic advertisements that were painted, often by hand, on the sides of walls and buildings.” Jump feels that the faded ads open a window into the New York of yesteryear and can change the way we see the city.

Does Jump think the city should restore the ads to their former glory? He says no. Just like every living thing, they were meant to fade away — or be torn down unexpectedly.

Featured Fade – Plomberie Sanitaire – Chauffage Central – Sanitary Plumbing & Central Heating – Toulon, France – Kovel/Son

Feb 17th, 2012
by fadingad.
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© Kovel/Son

© Kovel/Son

Wear Gossard Corsets – They Lace in Front – Chicago, IL

Feb 16th, 2012
by Frank.
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© Frank H. Jump

1913 Ad H W Gossard Maternity Corset Abdominal Support

Courtesy of Bobbins & Bombshells

The movement of factories to find lower labor costs is not something that started when shoes began to be made in China. In 1920 Gossard opened a factory in Ishpeming, Michigan that eventually employed 600 women, Once it was the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (and, to a much greater extent, the American south) that offered a ready supply of inexpensive non-unionized labor. I knew a woman who came to the U.P. in the late 1940s to organize the workers for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. After a long strike, she succeeded and the plant continued for another 20 years after that, finally closing in 1966. There’s a nice exhibit about “The Gossard” in the Cliffs Mine Museum in Ishpeming and a brief article about it here. Best quote:”You were a forward thinking woman if you wore a front-lacing corset.” – Comment from Yooperann on Chicago Man’s Flickr Photostream

Featured Fade – F. Weber – Manufacturers of Artists Colors – Philadephia, PA – Triborough

Feb 15th, 2012
by Frank.
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Supplies for Architects Draughting - Blueprints - Flickr Photostream © Triborough

Frank Jump @ Fading Ads of NYC on WFUV’s Cityscape | 90.7 with George Bodarky – Saturday, February 18th @ 7:30AM

Feb 14th, 2012
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7:30 AM on Cityscape with George Bodarky

New York City’s saturated with advertisements. They’re on buses, in the subways, atop taxis, and along highways. But, it’s not the newest Calvin Klein ad that catches the attention of acclaimed photographer and urban documentarian Frank Jump. He likes to document so-called ghost signs in the city. These ads from a bygone era are visible, but often overlooked — and for Jump, they’re also a metaphor for his own long survival with HIV. Several of Jump’s photographs are included in a new book called Fading Ads of New York City (History Press). Jump is our guest on this week’s Cityscape.

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Featured Fade – Lindsay Laboratories – Nevins & Schermerhorn Streets – Downtown Brooklyn – Bennett Cohen

Feb 13th, 2012
by fadingad.
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© Bennett Cohen

© Bennett Cohen

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-12

Feb 12th, 2012
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