Gate Lands Sign
silver gelatin print
16" x 20"

The focus of Winter Park artist Rick Lang’s photography for the past 14 years has been exploring the cultural and historical significance of signs found in the rural southern landscape. Located along the many back roads, these signs are a reflection of the people where the signs are found. In a very real way they reflect people’s efforts to participate in the American Dream through expressions of love, hate, religion, social gatherings, politics and commerce. It is an effort by its citizens to communicate to their community. The signs may be simple and or crude in their construction, but are effective in the way that they are designed to reach their intended audience. While none of the photographs have any people in them, they do have a voice. In these signs scattered across the rural landscape, the presence of their makers is felt as sure as it they were there in person. In this body of work, the artist endeavors to explore the role rural signs play in the social landscape of the American South.