About the Object

This ripped and pasted-over “Post No Bills” sign is one of the earliest known photographs taken by Crawford of torn signs. He began experimenting with photography in 1934 but his breakthrough in the medium came in 1938, the year he created Torn Signs, Philadelphia. The simultaneous buildup and decay of weathered advertisements papered across cities from Philadelphia to Pamplona spoke to Crawford and he returned frequently to the theme in the last 30 years of his life.

 

Additional Information

Crawford’s oeuvre contains at least 70 photographs, drawings, and paintings that relate to the Torn Signs theme, his longest-running series. He took at least one other photograph of this sign, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. In this image, Crawford took a step back, expanding the scene to include an additional swath of ripped paper to the right.