Revisiting Roadside Redemption

In 2008, shortly after I moved to “the south”, I found myself migrating all of my assignment work from being out of the United States, to being within. Living in Nashville, Tennessee I found it advantageous to drive to most of my assignments - as Nashville is dead center, more or less, in the United States.

This made it much easier than flying, especially with all of the restrictions after 9/11. Carrying excessive amounts of equipment cases always causes great delays, and many detailed searches. Driving alleviated that. It also gave me an opportunity to see much of the geography of this land.

As I began to travel however, especially as my travels took me further into the southern States, I began to notice the appearance of evangelical Christian billboards. At first it was my ire was sparked, but soon gave way to my overwhelming sense of curiosity. Why were they being erected? Were they erected out of hope, or fear?

In my attempt to understand them, I began to photograph them - (which is the way I have always made sense of the world). At first the billboards all had the same look: black metal with white lettering. And each message seemed to reflect Old Testament Scripture.

As time went on I began to see more and more billboards. Most were still of the same style, although there were others who joined in on the evangelical bandwagon. And then I came across the name of the man who was responsible for beginning this movement - and was the creator of the black metal billboards with white lettering. His name is Jimmy, and I had the opportunity to interview him.

The interview, which I talk about in some detail in the video, gave me a great insight into the impetus for the initial billboard movement, but also it gave me a strong insight into stabilizing power (for some) of Old Testament Scripture. I also gained an answer into one of my foundational questions: “were the billboards erected out of hope or fear?” It turned out that the reason was fear; Jimmy’s fear of retribution, by “the Lord”, if he didn’t erect them.

I had also decided, a couple of months into my ‘quest for understanding’, to create an exhibition from the images that I created. I titled it: Roadside Redemption. (You can see images from the exhibition here).

I was astounded by the response! Those who were of the strong Christian faith saw the exhibition as a triumph of their evangelical devotion. Those who were on the opposite side of this coin found the exhibition equally triumphant in its bringing to light what they felt was an arrogance, and judgmental nature of the conservative Christians. 

For me it was a triumph in that no bias of my own shone through - which is something that I always strive for in my work. I simply presented the story as it was, allowing the images to inspire internal dialog. My only regret is that, to the best of my knowledge, the images did not spark open dialog between those of differing viewpoints.

I was also astounded by the response the exhibition received in various European countries. But that is another story…

I write about this now because I have recently returned to the original image files. From the very beginning of the project I believed that this would be a great photographic book. A couple of times over the years I have revisited this concept, but the timing seemed not quite right. For reasons that I am currently not certain of, the desire to revisit this body of work again is strong - an internal gnawing to revisit, and re-edit.

Since 2008 the proliferation of billboards has continued, and even evolved. From the somewhat humble beginnings of Jimmy’s Old Testament Scripture, to billboards that now have a toll free number to get “the answers” directly from God, or a code that allows one access to God’s answers, via a text message.

My curiosity has nudged me many times to call, or text, but as of yet I haven’t. Perhaps one day I will… just to see who answers. 

Paid subscribers you have two video posts: one that discuss the creative process behind the revisiting of the project, and the other is an intimate look at the impetus behind the project.