52nd Street, New York, N.Y., ca. July 1948
William Gottlieb
4x5 color negative
From the Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress
Project Neon is all about celebrating the great signs still up and glowing, but sometimes when there’s bad neon news like the loss of Maiman’s, I need to retreat to the golden age of neon for a moment.
William Gottlieb was a remarkable photographer who chronicled the New York jazz scene of the 30s and 40s. The Library of Congress has a great collection of his photos, from which the above is taken (I cropped out the film edges so you could better see the content). 52nd Street was Swing Street back in the day, and wow, wasn’t it amazing even before you could get inside to hear the music? And all those dark & curvy cars, together with the wet street, really reflect the glow beautifully.
The Dingman Collection
Preview June 8th, Auction June 9th & 10th
Hampton, New Hampshire
You guys, I want to buy ALL THE SIGNS. Can someone give me the money and a warehouse to put them in? The first half of this video is Michael Dingman talking a bit about his collection of signs, which are largely transportation related, though they also include motels, gas stations, restaurants, etc. (In the second half he talks about his collection of antique cars.) An incredible, beautiful set of signs. There are over 1,400 for sale. I hope at least a couple end up in a museum or somewhere they can be seen.
Apparently earlier this year more of his signs were sold. So many signs.
PS: When I was looking for info about the sale, I came across this (unrelated) amazing neon-covered truck. Cool!
Hey you guys, guess what! The Project Neon iPhone app is now available (for free—thanks Kickstarter backers!) on the iTunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/project-neon/id464751184
I hope those of you with iPhones will download it (I’m still looking into porting it to other platforms) and share the link as well. Thanks!
You may also have noticed the new page link up top (if you’re looking at the actual Project Neon blog page and not the Tumblr dashboard) called iPhone App. That page has a little more information about the app. Also, don’t forget that the opening is tomorrow night at 7p at the City Reliquary (even though it might rain—come anyway, OK? OK!) I hope to see some of you there!
The Observer celebrates 100 years of Neon. Here’s the gallery link too.
Project Neon added:
here’s a link to that Observer article that talks about Project Neon.
