Photographer Shoots Decaying Billboards for 2012 Calendar

Does advertising become art as it decays? Such an argument can be made based on Richard Sargent's photographs. The images from the California cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, and Richmond, collected in the East Bay Billboards Calendar 2012, depict dilapidated urban billboards that resemble abstract collages. In a way, they're more in tune with their gritty, graffiti-tagged surroundings than when they were gaudy and new. The "onion" effect is especially intriguing: Peel away the layers of ad messages, and you're ultimately left with … nothing.