"The American West has changed immeasurably over the past half a century. In Steve Fitch's wonderful photographic survey Vanishing Vernacular: Western Landmarks we find a fading world of the hotels, diners, radio masts and cinemas dotted along the highways. In a similar vein to the city vistas of Eugène Atget and Berenice Abbot and – in particular – the studies of cooling towers by Bernd and Hiller Becher, Fitch produces a moving paean to the landmarks of yesteryear."
—Christian House, freelance arts and books writer for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph (read the full article here)

"Steve Fitch reminds us of one of the great pleasures of the classic American road trip, the exuberant roadside motel sign, an endangered species he artfully captures in all its neon glory, alongside drive-in movie theaters, hand-painted signs, and other oddities of the Western cultural landscape."
—Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography, New Mexico Museum of Art

"Steve Fitch, who refers to himself as a visual folklorist, has documented the changing landscape of the American West since the mid-1970s. His new photo book, Vanishing Vernacular: Western Landmarks, is a striking visual commentary on how these once ubiquitous signs—alongside thousand-year-old petroglyphs, small-town murals, and drive-in theaters—are becoming part of the collective memory of the West."
—Aida Amer, Atlas Obscura (read the full article here)

December 28, 1980. The La Mesita Lodge sign is a classic 1950s sign, in Mesa, Arizona, on U.S. 60 © Steve Fitch