MARCH: Would you rather remember or forget the places you’ve photographed?

John Lehr: I think we are all called by the lure of advertising and design to have a personal reaction to ubiquitous places and things. My response is to see them as retaining some of the desires and anxieties that went into their creation. I’m trying to locate something specific within this anonymity.

MARCH: Your scenes have a post-apocalyptic aesthetic. Why do you describe the American landscape devoid of its American people?

John: Ultimately, I am interested in the things we make and how these things function as emblems of particular human sensibilities. The American landscape is made up of this incredible mixture of mirages and false starts. It is as though we have dreamed this place into being through a collective craving for convenience and distraction.

MARCH: In your series, “Sound and Fury” you photograph signs from the side, and, in doing so deny their right to own public spaces, reducing them to formal abstractions. Can you talk about the role of erasure in your work?

John: It has to do with where I stand in relation to something. I remember being shocked the first time I made one of these pictures. Suddenly this towering advertisement was reduced to a mute object that retained a great deal of influence over the landscape. Even though the message is erased we are still aware of its hovering omnipresence. What’s left is a picture of something we know but don’t recognize.

MARCH: How do you feel about selling your work?

John: Is that a trick question?