New guide highlights humorous images taken by ex-Topekan George Olson

• Photographer George Olson has launched a brand new guide titled “Roadside Distractions.”
• The guide options humorous images of indicators and Americana taken over a 60-year interval.
• Olson is a Topeka native and was inducted into the Kansas Press Association Photojournalism Hall of Fame.
• The guide was funded via a Kickstarter marketing campaign and won’t be bought in shops.

“Hot” and “cold” say the lettering on the 2 Pratt, Kansas, water towers that stand side-by-side in a 1993 picture that is a part of George Olson’s new guide.

“Trembly Chiropractic Office” says one other, taken in 1989 displaying the signal on the late Raleigh Trembly’s Topeka office whereas deriving its humor from the distinction between a “trembly” hand and the regular one wanted by an excellent chiropractor.

Olson, a employees photographer from 1966 to 1974 for The Topeka Capital-Journal, says the images in his guide, “Roadside Distractions,” chronicle his “60-year quest for funny” whereas driving all through America.

“‘Roadside Distractions’ combines everything I’ve always loved: Photography, journalism, humorous themes, cars, signs, Americana and maybe most of all, road trips — mostly on two-lane roads, far from freeways,” Olson stated.

Project saved Olson ‘searching for the sunshine — and the light-hearted’

Olson, 80, is a Topeka native who graduated in 1964 from Topeka High School and in 1968 from Washburn University.

“I started working at the Topeka Capital-Journal for Rich Clarkson, the photo director who shaped my career, and where I traveled all over the state,” he said. “I can’t help thinking that growing up in Kansas had a great deal to do with my appreciation of these simple signs.”

Olson loved an extended profession that included being director of images from 1995 to 2005 for Oakland, California-based Sunset journal, and taking pictures images for publications that included National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and The New York Times.

Olson was inducted in 2024 into the Kansas Press Association Photojournalism Hall of Fame.

Olson shot most of guide’s images utilizing a digital camera purchased in Topeka

“As I traveled America on assignment for many magazines, shooting stories in color, I always had my old Leica (bought at Wolfe’s Camera Shop in Topeka) loaded with black and white Tri-X film, looking for funny signs along the highways and byways,” Olson said. “It was my personal project, and it kept me looking for the light — and the light-hearted.”

Olson used that digital camera to take virtually each picture in “Roadside Distractions,” he stated.

Humor ‘a uncommon visible kind that may elicit a smile or a chuckle,’ Olson says

“My pictures are straightforward even if the humor is sometimes off-kilter,” Olson stated. “To me, humor is a rare visual form that can elicit a grin or a chuckle, sometimes a guffaw, and I hope you laugh a little as you look at these funny signs.”

At least 11 of the guide’s images have been taken in Kansas.

Olson stated he thinks plains states residents will discover the guide’s content material attention-grabbing as a result of it exhibits many Midwestern, small-town, “salt-of-the-earth” kinds of photos.

Book’s availability to finish Sept. 14

The Foreword for “Roadside Distractions” was written by Pete Souza, official photographer for the presidencies of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan.

Olson mounted a profitable marketing campaign utilizing the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform to lift donations from sponsors wanted to publish “Roadside Distractions,” a 9-inch by 9-inch, soft-cover present guide.

“Roadside Distractions” will not be out there in bookstores. Those wishing to personal a duplicate might develop into a sponsor by logging on to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roadsidedistractions/roadside-distractions/rewards.

For a donation of $60, sponsors will obtain a signed copy of the guide and any of 4 totally different images included in it. Other sponsoring preparations are additionally out there, and are detailed on the Kickstarter web site.

The KickStarter marketing campaign ends Sept. 14, after which the guide will now not be out there.

‘I hope you may be part of me,’ guide’s creator says

Olson stated he feels happy that the success of the guide’s Kickstarter marketing campaign has enabled him to share his imaginative and prescient, travels and humorousness.

“With this book, I’m hoping everyone comes along for the ride,” he stated.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at 785-213-5934 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.