This Is Not a Sign

This Is Not a Sign began during the 2020 lockdown, when Oleg Char started photographing illuminated signs on nighttime drives through Los Angeles. Removed from the usual movement of the city, the signs became subjects in their own right: traces of familiar places, brief encounters, and lives continuing beyond the frame.

The series moves between recognizable landmarks and more easily overlooked signs. Through framing, darkness, and color, Char shifts attention from what a sign advertises to what its image can hold. The photographs consider how a place becomes part of personal and collective memory, and how that memory persists as the city changes.