{"id":409,"date":"2007-11-26T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T16:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=409"},"modified":"2014-09-23T09:25:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T14:25:24","slug":"southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Religious Roadside Signs Inspire Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nOXFORD, Miss. — For Joe York, a producer and director of
\ndocumentary films at the University of Mississippi, the
\nidea to publish a book of photos of Southern religious road
\nsigns came out of a plan about biscuits.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIn the essay “Salesmen of Salvation” featured in his new
\nbook “With Signs Following: Photographs from the Religious
\nRoadside” (University Press of Mississippi), York explains
\nhe was searching for evidence to back up a theory about how
\n“something ceases to be Southern and becomes, instead,
\nSouthern style.” This project was quickly replaced by
\nanother.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Over the thousands of miles I have recently traveled
\nacross the South, I have yet to see one sign that tells me
\nhow to make a biscuit,” York writes. “I have, however, seen
\nhundred of signs that tell me how to get to heaven, or
\nperhaps how not to go to hell.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThese road signs inspired York to begin a quest, lasting
\nnearly three years, to take pictures of Southern religious
\nroad signs. York estimates he took more than 1,000 photos
\nin his travels.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Everywhere I went across the South, from North Carolina to
\nsouth Alabama and everywhere in between, the one constant
\nroadside scene — other than dead dogs and live bait — was
\nthe presence of religiously themed signs,” he said. “More
\nthan anything, I decided to focus on photographing these
\nsigns, because I couldn’t seem to get away from them.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nYork asked Charles Reagan Wilson, Cook Chair of History and
\nSouthern Studies at UM and a former professor of York’s, to
\nwrite the book’s introduction.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Joe has a particular aesthetic quality that finds beauty
\nalong the Southern roadside,” Reagan said. “His work is
\npart of a tradition of popular religion that is very
\nprominent in the South, in which the depth of people’s
\nspiritual feelings is seen in gospel songs they sing and
\ngospel concerts they attend, religious books about end
\ntimes, television evangelists and other such things.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe book features 70 signs from towns across the South.
\nYork traveled through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia,
\nTennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky,
\nArkansas and Florida to compile pictures for his book.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nOf all the photos, York said the one that really sticks
\nwith him was shot near Lexington, Tenn. It shows a small
\nsign made to appear like an election ballot, with the
\nchoices “Jesus” and “Devil” and little squares for check
\nmarks.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“I think more than any other sign I saw, this one really
\ndoes an amazing job of boiling down all of Southern
\nevangelical Protestant theology,” he said. “The idea that
\neveryone gets an afterlife in one of two places and that
\neveryone has a choice which place they will end up in.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nReagan says York’s book offers Southerners insights to the
\nworld around them.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“The photographs show a sometimes quirky South of funny and
\noffbeat messages, but other times, the photos show a
\nsincere earnestness about faith in the Bible Belt,” he
\nsaid.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more information about York’s book “With Signs
\nFollowing: Photographs from the Religious Roadside” go to
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.upress.state.ms.us\/catalog\/spring2007\/with?signs?following.html.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. — For Joe York, a producer and director of documentary films at the University of Mississippi, the idea to publish a book of photos of Southern religious road signs came out of a plan about biscuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSouthern Religious Roadside Signs Inspire Book - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Southern Religious Roadside Signs Inspire Book - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. — For Joe York, a producer and director of documentary films at the University of Mississippi, the idea to publish a book of photos of Southern religious road signs came out of a plan about biscuits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T14:25:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/\",\"name\":\"Southern Religious Roadside Signs Inspire Book - Ole Miss News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-23T14:25:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/southern-religious-roadside-signs-inspire-book\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e8e7562bf6d779d771ad8ce4cecd7ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43009,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/43009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}