When I came upon these old advertising signs in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, they tweaked my memories of growing up in the 1950s. Metal signs were an important visual medium in the earlier decades of the last century, at a time when mass advertising was just catching on.

I took this photograph in a tiny mining town, which shall remain unnamed to help protect the old signs from collectors. There was a little cafe across the street, and people eating there were wondering what I was photographing with my tripod set up in the middle of the quiet street. In fact, one woman who emerged from the cafe gave voice to what everyone was thinking: "Why are you taking pictures of that crummy old building?"

And that reminds me of a question voiced at an art show by a vocal ten-year old who asked about one of my Americana pictures. I explained that I wanted to photograph old places before they disappear. He replied sarcastically: "Is it bad that they disappear?" Well, I think so. I feel a sense of nostalgia for the look of the past—in contrast to our era, when every town and every mall across the USA have essentially the same stores.

Lee Rentz