For some reason, photographers enjoy making pictures of words, usually in the form of signage. A sign often offers us a handy visual label of where we’ve been. Unfortunately, such pictures often become clichés. To make sign pictures that goes beyond clichés, I use signs within a context that makes them work. In this shot of an amusement park’s indoor salt-water swimming pool under renovation, I shot its sign through a series of barriers. The rusty fencing and barbed wire tell my viewers that they may stand on dangerous ground here. These barriers provide one layer of meaning. Another layer of meaning comes from the ominous shadow of the huge ornamental gate, which rises behind me. The gate offers two vast arches for entry, yet once beyond this gate, we are met with steel and wire. The sign itself becomes part of the context – it gives us the name of the facility and the date it was originally opened. It is not the words of the sign that convey meaning here. The meaning comes from the context that supports them.