On Graffiti and Changing The World (sort of)

I’ve always had a thing for graffiti even though I’ve never been great at spelling it, much less creating it. My artistry is mostly tuned in to capturing images of things I like so these images will be the closest thing I have to a contribution to the spray painting community. I preface this post saying that all artwork photographed belongs to anonymous artists. I have simply photographed what I saw and therefore apologize for any explicatives visible in the photographs and do not tie myself to any organization represented by the artwork. Politics out of the way, check out these awesome pieces.

The technique in graffiti pieces is really fascinating. The skull itself looked a little weird to me but the halo of sorts around it is really cool. It looks like the artist held the nozzle close to the wall and sprayed at an angle to create the dark point and the lighter tail feathering away. It looks like someone else put their own tags inside the eyes and tooth. I hate to see a decent piece getting ripped on by someone else.

I’m sure this piece has some sort of back story. I don’t know it but it makes me wonder what the tag means. I’ve thought a lot about this one. At first I thought it might have been some group, I considered maybe it was supposed to be ironic, or an observation on society. Maybe it’s just the coolest word with only 6 letters that artist knows how to draw well. Whatever it is, it makes me think, form my own opinions. I think a good photograph should do that too. Show you something beautiful and make you create your own story to match the image.

In a small town there aren’t many good places you can get away with graffiti. This wall is obviously one of them. A support wall for a bridge, this is a spot that brings out all the local would be artists. The majority of the people who tag here aren’t great, but most of them have a message that they want to get out. They don’t know how to touch millions so they do it in a way they don’t think will make a difference. They’re just one more spray painted peace sign in a big country. Maybe they aren’t changing the world but maybe they’re doing something more important. Changing themselves. They’ve gone out and done something for a cause. They’re part of that cause now. They believe in it. It’s a part of them. I’m not going to get political, philosophical or religious here but I’ll say this, if you don’t have a cause yet, maybe it’s time you found one. We all need to believe in something.

You already know how I feel about color and details. I took this shot cause the little rip in the surface of the paint caught my eye. The detail on the left side of the image pops a lot for me because the right side of the image looks so “GENERIC.” (for those of you with short term memory loss trying to figure out why that is all caps and in quotation marks, scroll up 🙂 )

This shot worked for me. I like blending things so crossing a dark and intriguing space in the upper left with a sky to the right using a half graffiti’d wall really gets the creative juices flowing. If you want to spice up your portfolio throw some contrasting things in it your don’t usually do. Work a classic sunset with something out of the ordinary. If you’re a wedding photographer, go shoot a day at a skatepark. Better yet shoot a young groom in a tuxedo at skate park. Actually don’t do that, I call dibs. The point is find some things outside of your norm, maybe even outside of your comfort zone and give it your all. In 20 years when you think about the things you did, you should be thinking things like, how didn’t I die getting that shot. I guess all this graffiti has me feeling like a rebel without a cause. I’m going to have to practice what I preach and try to get some wild stuff soon. Until then, I wish you all the best and hope to be sharing more content sooner rather than later this time. It’s been a crazy week.

Get me social in the sidebar. I’m big on the twitter. Share me down below I love meeting your friends. Comment me under that, I love talking to all you guys and gals! Bye for now, Arley (Here’s a graffiti post from a blog I follow if you’re still in the mood)

 

(By the way, I know I said no more politics up top but here’s a disclaimer. I don’t support or encourage graffiti. I’m just capturing it and sharing it. I know there’s a lot of controversy on the subject and it’s costing tax payer dollars to clean up. That’s all I got to say about that though. 🙂 )