Book: Jail Keys Made Here by Lee Boltin

Posted on By Tony

As part of researching the photography of signs for my Assignment 5, I came across the book, Jail Keys Made Here (Boltin, 1959)

Fig. 1. Jail Keys Made Here

The book is not art, it not trying to say anything other than highlight some of the signs the photographer, Lee Boltin, has come across in his travels across America and that he found amusing.  The title of the book itself being that of a sign for a shop advertising that they could make you keys for a jail.

I was interested in this book for two reasons and, even though it is not a particularly reflective book, was still interested to see what I could learn from it.  All the images shown in this review are from the book, non are captioned and all are claimed as Boltin’s – I have therefore not listed each image in the bibliography.

I was interested in two specific points:  

1.  How the images had been captured to show the sign in its best light

2.  Given the images were intended to show humour, how is this portrayed.  This is of particular interest to me as humour, of the dry sort, is something that it emerging in my photography.

Some signs such as Figure 2 below are inherently funny purely because of the text that the sign shows.  Where this is the case, Boltin has tended to capture the sign as close up as he is able to.  In this image he has framed it specifically to get the width of the sign in shot.  The Text is humorous because of it subject matter, it does not rely on anything else.  The idea that 2lb of coffee is a suitable recompense if one discovers one’s deal could have been beaten is amusing in itself and so no other information in the image is required.

Fig. 2. 2lbs of Coffee

Figure 3 is humorous for different reasons.  This is more akin to Keith Arnatt and his Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty series (A.O.N.B (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An overview of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography, 2020).  Here it is all about the juxtaposition, in Arnatt’s case, between the title of the area itself and some of the scenes found within it.  In the case of this figure, between the dilapidated hut with the advert, and the modern hourse perched on the ridge above (slightly precariously in my view) and perhaps the building materials strewn about the place.  So in this image, it is important to show all of those things in the framing. 

Fig. 3. Sunstream Homes

Figure 4 is again an image the needs the context to understand why it is funny.  A sign stating that Signs has moved makes no sense, but look at the wider context and eventually one realises that it is the name of the shop.

Fig. 4. Signs

Learning Points:

  • The framing in these images, although not that formal, has been carefully chosen to show what is amusing but nothing more.  We see what needs to be seen but nothing else, nothing to distract us.
  • When the sign itself is inherently amusing, just showing the sign and nothing else is enough.

Bibliography

Boltin, L., 1959. Jail Keys Made Here, And Other Signs. New York: Meridian Books.

Britishphotography.org. 2020. A.O.N.B (Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An Overview Of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography. [online] Available at: <http://www.britishphotography.org/online-exhibitions/1755/10341/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography-aonb-area-of-outstanding-natural-beauty?r=online-exhibitions/1755/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography> [Accessed 23 August 2020].