Odd Signs by Gae Rusk ::: A collection of snapshots of publicly posted signs from around the world.

ODD SIGNS by GAE RUSK

		Odd is my middle name. What I photograph reflects my own nature, which keeps me isolated and thinking odd thoughts and writing odd books. The first odd sign I shot was in 1971 near Capetown, South Africa. I was nineteen and a student traveling the world on two dollars, protected by the radiance of sheer ignorance. That first sign wasn’t funny as so many signs have been since. It was posted on a public restroom in a park, a prominent and tidy rectangle reading “Damas Blankas”.
White Women, I read. White women, I thought. White Women? Oh my god. They even have separate sewers here? is my stupefied response to this sign. I was disturbed. I was disbelieving. I was angry, and then I had to pee. But could I go in? I looked at my skin, tanned and freckled from three months at sea. I looked at the building painted a blinding white and couldn’t decide if I qualified. That’s when I pulled out my camera and snapped a photo of this odd sign, and I’ve been doing it ever since, every time I run into one that stops me in my tracks. It is an odd addiction, I know, but no matter where I go, I am always able to find a sign to feed my beast. And, I have learned that each location infuses its messages with a regional flavor, making its signs uniquely odd. In the end, odd signs are honest. They provide evidence of our historic and ongoing struggle with communicating well. They provide glimpses of ingenuity in a multi-lingual world, and this alone makes these revealing messages precious.


WARNING SIGNS	BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL	JESUS COMING SOON


Vermont, 1987	Christchurch, New Zealand, 1983	Sigtuna, Sweden, August, 1997


San Juan Island, August 1988	Honolulu, 2000	Boise, Idaho July 2004


Kauai 2002	Granville Island, Canada October 2002	West Texas, 2005


Powell River, British Colombia 2002	Guntersville, Alabama, February 2002	Vancouver 2001


Hanamaulu, Kauai 2001	Christchurch New Zealand 1983


	Kauai, 2002