February 28, 2004: Graffiti and Photography 1
Back in the early 1990s graffiti was enjoying something of a resurgence, with great artists like Revs and Cost catching a lot of wreck around the city. My friends and I got into it, and for a period from 1991 to 1993 did a fair amount of damage, mainly in Chelsea. Only one of us, Odie, really had any skills. I can't draw, and I have pretty poor motor skills, so most of my pieces turned out looking ridiculous. In 1997 and 1998 I got pretty heaviliy into stencil graffiti, inspired by a lot of the great stuff you see on the streets of Paris. I haven't touched a can of paint in six years, but I make up for the deficit by shooting a lot of pictures at night, in the same areas where we used to do graf. My style of photography has a lot of elements that remind me of the way we used to go bombing- crouching in alleys and on dark streets in the middle of the night, thinking a lot about buildings and colors, always a little bit worried about getting jumped. The great thing about holding a camera, instead of a can, is that it's all perfectly legal, and if practiced correctly, the results last a lot longer.
[Related: the octopi (puses?) above were most likely caught by the great Orchard Street artist Marco, who seems to be vying with UFO for most unlikely graffiti character. Examples of our work from the early 1990s can be found on the ICF website- more about that here.]
Which tag was yours?
i was known as jugs, which i ofter wrote as "jugz"- it was an affectionate abbreviation of "juggler", and i would occasionally draw a stick figure juggling. this, of course, caused no end of taunting on the part of the other fake-graffiti artists at school, who considered the tag to be a bit fey. if i caught wreck these days, i'd draw a picture of my cat instead of using a word.
fun facts: i have the words "i can fly" tattooed across the back of my ankle, and a juggler on the left side of my shoulder.
Wait a minute -- you used to be a graffiti writer, and you have "i can fly" tattooed on your ankle? Have you considered suing Jonathan Lethem for copyright infringement, or something?
wait- jonathan lethem also used to be a graf artist and has "i can fly" on his ankle? i don't understand! i was thinking of suing r. kelly for corrupting our crew's name with his horrible late 90s song "i believe i can fly". luckily, icf can also stand for "i catch fame" or other gay expressions like that.
Anyone thought of making t-shirts of these? As much as I dislike the destruction of graffiti...They'd be pretty cool...the octopus and L.E.S. next to it in true form....of course I'd hate to find out one day that the artist is a skinhead nazi or something...would american apparel do this sort of thing?? No neckface though although that would be funny too
ICF was somewhat of an inspiration to me, and really, the first crew to utilize/exploit the web for recognition. I remember a filled hollow on a van that had an awesome color scheme..and some poetry or story writing on the site. ICF was badass in my book. Too bad graffiti is retarded.
guillermo