These Photo Billboards Align Perfectly with the Landscapes They Block

If you take a drive down the Gene Autry Trail in California sometime before April 30th, you’ll run into an unusual set of billboards. Rather than ads, you’re greeted by a landscape photograph that, for a fleeting moment as you drive by, will blend perfectly into the mountains in the distance.

Called Visible Distance, the billboards are actually an art installation by Jennifer Bolande, part of an outdoor exhibition of art installations for the not-for-profit charitable organization Desert X, which was photographed by Lance Gerber. Bolande photographed the landscapes behind the billboard, and then created the drive-by installation by turning the very concept of the billboard on its head.

“…at a certain point as one approaches each billboard, perfect alignment with the horizon will occur thus reconnecting the space that the rectangle of the billboard has interrupted,” explains the project description. “Within the desert empire of roadside signs, Bolande chooses to advertise the very thing so often overlooked. Looking up at the billboards our attention is drawn back to the landscape itself, pictured here as a stuttering kineasthetic of real and artificial horizons.”

Scroll down to see all the installations for yourself:

To learn more about Desert X, Visible Distance, or any of the other art installations created for the non-profit, visit the organization’s website by clicking here.


Image credits: Photographs by Lance Gerber, courtesy of the artist and Desert X.

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