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Street Art and Photography

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to achieve harmony you need to master ugliness, ƒ/2.8, 28mm

Years ago, I started to photograph graffiti at large including posters, tags and all the traces left by street artists. The original reason was maybe keeping an archive of this ephemeral art or make visible very small things which are usually unnoticed or considered as vandalism. There is a theory that the existence of street art is bound to photography. The thesis by Anna Waclawek From Graffiti to the Street Art Movement: Negotiating Art Worlds, Urban Spaces, and Visual Culture, c. 1970 - 2008 provides an exhaustive research on the topic. Documentarian and photographer such as Henry Chalfant or Martha Cooper made the incredible job to document and archive the history of graffiti. The commitment of such artist is impressive and especially the symbiosis between them and the culture surrounding street art.

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defeating circles, ƒ/2.8, 28mm

Not everything can be theorized in photography. My photographic journey in street art evolved into something I cannot easily define. My eyes are often attracted by the one in tension to disappear or dissolve in the urban space. Those traces who made the life of an artist less sad or brighten the day of the urban wanderers. Maybe those works of art who became so intricated in our environment. We cannot discern those works from their life on a wall. Their existences are bound to the surroundings and to how time is influencing these. This is what I'm looking for. A tension between everything in urban spaces which create a new balance in our life.