Graffiti and Photography – Two Worlds Merging

 Picture the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It is considered to be one of the greatest works of art ever to be done. Most of us would be able to recognize it were we to stumble upon it yet how many of us have actually visited the “Musee du Louvre” in Paris and seen it first hand? Most likely we saw a photograph of it rather then the original art piece. However, most of us were able to appreciate the photograph just as much as the original, were we to see it. In the world of graffiti photography plays the same role. It delivers these magnificent works of art to people all across the globe through the images it captures in its lens. Photography has transformed graffiti in several ways in a similar manner to the way it has transformed the Mona Lisa.

 The name graffiti originated from the Italian word “graffito.”  Nowadays, the word graffiti has received a broader meaning referring to any wall writings, pictures, symbols or marking on any surface anywhere, no matter what the motivation of the writer was.  There are several types of graffiti.  This method of art seems to incorporate two seemingly different worlds, that of the written word and that of picture.

 Most people associate this type of graffiti to gangs marking their territory.  This seems to be a misconception rather then a proven fact.

Graffiti is a victim of prejudice and misconception by people who view it as a criminal activity.

 According to one graffiti writer named Kairos, most of the tagging done in cities is by young artists trying to establish themselves for the first time

Gang graffiti usually consists of poor quality scribbling and at times very poor drawing  The main purpose of these writings is to mark gang territory  gang graffiti is only a small portion of all graffiti writings

Writers  Writers are the people who write graffiti rather than paint it.  They use words as a form of artistic expression.  They usually start off with tagging but quickly move on to create “throwups.” These are bubble letters which demands more skill to create.

“Graffiti is meant to be a public display.”

Danger in graffiti comes in several different forms

 “When you become a writer, you know that your stuff won't last forever”  writers now tend to photograph their works in order to preserve them forever.  Photography gives the paintings which were once temporary a new dimension

What was once a work of art that could only be viewed on a certain street corner is now possible to view from every corner of the world through a variety of media channels

 These photographers are usually fans of the graffiti art form and photograph any new art pieces they encounter  Over the years a number of sites which instruct on how to photograph graffiti have appeared on the web  One such site can be found at  “First of all, you are documenting an art form, and not creating art on your own--don't be creative with your shot.”

 Nowadays the internet provides a fertile ground for graffiti lovers to view new pieces of work and for photographers to display the pictures.  Two sites that offer graffiti photos: tm tm

 The relationship between photography and graffiti has had great impact on both art forms. Graffiti, due to many circumstances, has come to rely on photography to take it into the twenty first century. With everything in today’s world becoming more and more global graffiti cannot be, nor should it be, an exception. Photography provides graffiti the opportunity to make the leap into the future. It allows graffiti an escape from the dark, crime filled dirty inner city streets and to appear on the global stage that it deserves and that the internet provides. It allows graffiti to stop being the work of artists who decorate our cities but never compensated for it by enabling it to become a commercial product, and thus make a profit from it, for good and for bad. What was initially a rebellion against the establishment is now shifting towards the main stream. The road that graffiti will follow in the future is inseparable from that of photography and only the future will show is where it goes.