Bluejake

So whose tag IS the "cute little octopus"?? I see that thing everywhere!

Wow were almost in the same boat, I used to write back in 93 and 11 years later Im into photography as well. Well I'm just starting out with this hobby but yes, I do see some type of connection between the two "arts".

What are your concerns, if any, about publicizing the work of graffiti artists? What is the line between reporting what is out there, and implicitly promoting the work?

I've posted the octopus guy on my site, but one day I was walking down Crosby, and there was so much of the octopus that I got disgusted by it all. Every few feet there was another octopus. That hasn't stopped me from photographing the work of other artists, but I had to give the octopus a break.

yeah- there is a lot to the debate- but i break it down into these issues:

1. is graffiti acceptable on any level? i, of course, think it is, because i think it makes the city more interesting visually, and because i think the artistic value more than compensates society for the cost of cleaning it up where it is unwanted. that is not to say i don't understand why people don't like graf, or to say i think that all graf is good- i particularly hate toys, taggers, and people who do graf in inappropriate places.

2. the question of whether taking a picture of something condones the activity is a difficult one. in general, i think there is a pretty big difference between understanding something and accepting it, or perceiving something and approving of it. but there is a danger in photography, because it is an ineffective medium for carrying moral messages. people can see in my pictures what they want, and they may see the wrong thing.

3. on the octopus in particular: i think marco has gone a little bit over the top. back when we did graf, we had a policy of not shitting where we ate- which is to say, you tried to respect the neighborhood, particularly the neighborhood you live in. i'm sure marco thinks he's adding value to these walls, but drawing 50 octopuses on a single block is too much. plus, he's so easily identified with his work- if i was the graffiti police, i'd just stake out his place on orchard, follow him around while he wrecks LES, and make him pay for the damages- he's definitely rich enough to pay for the cleanup.

I love octopi. And this octopus is so cute!

For me, photographing graf allows me to extract what I see is beauty, using the camera as my eye. There's some really magnificent stuff out there...and then there's a ton of really shitty tagging, etc. I don't think it's promoting graffiti to photograph it, at all. It's part of the city...in many senses, it's ever changing skin. Documentation of those changes is priceless, at least in my book.

I am a photographer who has photographed graffiti for as many years as i can remember,and I'm just about to write a thesis on "The documentation of gragffiti art"
However I am struggling to find publications on the actual image making of graffiti rather than the graffiti itself-if anyone has any suggestions of writingsn or any suggestions on the relationship between the two ,any aspect at all please could you write to brows3@hotmail.com with the title graffiti photo's Thanks any help would be appreciated.cheers