"You are here"

[Gianluca Drago]

There’s something comforting about those giant maps with the little “You are here” dot when you arrive somewhere new.
Then time passes, they fade into abstraction, and the maps meant to orient you end up doing the exact opposite. I’ve been photographing them for years because I love that irony. I can’t find the older ones now, but this one from today feels a bit like Jackson Pollock got into urban planning.

 

[Tony Warren]

A sad reflection on our times. Is the graffiti hiding the marker? I can't find it.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

A sad reflection on our times. Is the graffiti hiding the marker? I can't find it.

Probably the title should have been "You were here".

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I have no idea where "here" is

 

[Gianluca Drago]

I have no idea where "here" is

'Here' is here.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

not sure that helped...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Still confused? You are definitely 'Here':

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Now you're just messin' with me...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Now you're just messin' with me...

I just found other disorienting maps. It's not important where they are, it's important what they are.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

And here I spent all that time yesterday trying to locate a LIFE sanctuary with a lake shaped like that...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

And here I spent all that time yesterday trying to locate a LIFE sanctuary with a lake shaped like that...

I’m really sorry, @Gary R. Smith, but I don’t think it’s a lake; I think it’s actually the area where the map’s film has peeled off. In any case, it was near Mantua (Italy), but I can’t remember exactly where.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

it was near Mantua (Italy),

Finally! Now I know where here is...

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Do the owners of these maps not refresh them when they become un-useable? It appears they don't.

Once, I was here:

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Do the owners of these maps not refresh them when they become un-useable? It appears they don't.

Once, I was here:
View attachment 23808

Kalaloch?

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Using the diagram above and a map of Oregon, look for Rockaway Beach. The base of the tree (upper right below) is the "Big Cedar"

 

[Pete Askew]

I share your fascination with these ‘lost’ guides. I guess mobile mapping and GPS have made they sort of redundant and so no one looks at, or even after, them any more. However, they can become something else, as this one has.

At least in France they give one some guidance!...