Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Bill Kuhn traveled the city streets and country roads of Rosemount for his photo-collage project documenting signs bearing his hometown’s name. “It was a fun adventure, and I wanted to show my love for Rosemount,” he said. “If everyone took a little tour like I did, you’d see the beauty Rosemount has to offer.” (Photo by Rick Orndorf)
Bill Kuhn sought to photograph every sign with the word ‘Rosemount’
For 11 months, Bill Kuhn was a man on a mission.
Starting in September of last year and ending this summer, Kuhn traveled the streets of his hometown looking to photograph every sign that bears the word “Rosemount.”
Businesses, schools, water towers, highway signs, even railroad crossings – Kuhn shot them all. He’s now got a massive, 146-photo collage to show for his efforts.
“I don’t want to say I got obsessed with it, but even to this day I’m still looking for things that say ‘Rosemount,’” he said.
Kuhn said his sign project began as a series of family outings last summer – a lot of Sunday mornings driving around town with his wife and son. About halfway through, he started going solo.
“It was a fun adventure, and I wanted to show my love for Rosemount,” he said. “If everyone took a little tour like I did, you’d see the beauty Rosemount has to offer.”
Kuhn, who works for Delta Airlines as an industrial engineer, said photography has been a lifelong passion. In recent years he’s honed his skills through photography classes with District 196 Community Education, and he volunteers as an event photographer with Make-a-Wish Minnesota.
Photo collage by Bill Kuhn
He estimates that he spent 25 hours shooting photos of Rosemount signs during those 11 months, and another 40 to 60 hours assembling the photos into a collage on his computer.
He had intended to submit the collage in the “digitally altered photo” category of the annual Rosemount Photo Contest sponsored by the Rosemount Area Arts Council, but missed the contest’s deadline. As for the fate of Kuhn’s photo tribute to his hometown, he’s been mulling over some options.
“I would love to see it make its way onto the side of a building – I think it would be really cool for the city of Rosemount to have some type of mural,” he said. “I could see it on T-shirts, or on a park building, or on banners at schools. There’s so many possibilities – it’s generic enough that I think it has a longevity to it.”
And he’s already got his next big photo project in mind.
“I’d like to do a people-of-Rosemount collage,” he said. “I’d like to capture people in their work environments – farmers, business people, people in education jobs. That’ll take some time and a lot of planning.”
Bill is an accomplished photographer with impeccable composition in his work.
Great Story, unfortunately it is of my own town, that is so against any “Signage”. In fact, good luck researching the laws and permit fees attached to a sign request in the city of Rosemount to attach all of your signs to.
AND, be aware that the “enforcer” for sign violations actually admitted that he has to let some of the larger corporations slide a little on the law because “their attorneys will cost the city too much” when they fight it.
Those business’ like ours, that are non profit and lacking big attorneys, are a target!