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Graffiti-Street Art photography

Filed under: All posts, Photography & Digital Art — 3 Comments

May 14, 2009

Like many people, I used to think that graffiti was mindless vandalism, with stupid sayings like “Deco wuz ‘ere” “Tallaght represnt!!!!” and general lack of spelling and unappealing eye sores.

A few years back though, I was brought around to the idea that graffiti can be actual street art and I began exploring the streets of Dublin on a regular basis looking and hunting for good graffiti. There’s so much of it but amazingly not a lot of people seem to see it. (Then again, most people wouldn’t be entering dark lanes and streets with the same interest I do!)

Sadly, there’s no graffiti code of ethics in Ireland and often great graffiti is tagged by some idiot who thinks his (or her) turf is being trodden on by some intruder. (For those who aren’t sure what tagging is, it’s basically scrawling your tag name over someone else’s work to claim your terrority.)

I’ve visited Amsterdam 3 times so far and every time I’m stunned by the graffiti and ethics that are there. Tagging is virtually unheard of because there’s LOADS of space to do your bit. The only things out of bounds are private property, shops, museums etc. but scaffolding boards is most definitely free game. I’m in heaven just wandering the streets with my camera, almost getting hit by gangs of bikes as I stare at everything. *happy sigh*

I’ve managed to help a lot of people to appreciate street art a lot more through my photos and you can see a lot of them on my Graffiti set on my Flickr page here. I always try to include what street I found the graffiti on and if possible, the artist. (I never show any of the artist’s face in any of my photos and real names are never published.)

Hmm, this is gonna to be tough to choose, I have so many favourites!

So, I give you graffiti from the streets of Dublin and Amsterdam, enjoy!