I lived in San Diego in southern California from the summer of 1986 through to the following summer of 1987. Throughout this year-long stay, I photographed the city, amassing a large number of films. Nearly thirty years later, in 2015, a small number of photographs from my California archive were exhibited at the Carlisle Photo Festival. Labelled ‘San Diego Signs’, my pictures responded to the Festival theme of Visualising the Animal. The emphasis in these images was on the humorous use of animals in commercial signage.

The focus on commercial signage and premises became the subject for these two photozines published by The Velvet Cell. This selection of pictures is a typology, which is one of the methods I employ when making photographs; it is one way of organising the archive. Shopfronts and signage are a universal theme, but perhaps in each locale these commercial premises have their own distinct identity.

Published by The Velvet Cell.  
First Published 2015.