I Like ......

Doesn't Everyone?

great image timbo, i hate graffitti but it has a strong attraction in a graphical and expressive sense, i'm amazed at the methods people find to express themselves, and a great sentiment, i concur

It IS a hilarious statement by the graffitist, but to be honest, I feel that shots of someone else's intentional art (graffiti, wall murals, advertising signs, window displays, etc.) are a kind of plagiarism. Kind of ripping off the one who expressed it in the first place. A picture of art is not art in itself.

That said, I would certainly take this photo myself if I came across that wall with camera in hand. But I would display it in a blog, saying, "look at this funny message" rather than submit it for critique as a photograph.

That said, please don't let me dissuade you from submitting more photos for critiques!

You raise an excellent point meltronic, and I'm glad you did. A picture of grafitti is *not* your art- you can't take it away from the painter (mind you, in this case I don't know it was art he was after). The topic of this assignment was to somehow figure out *how* to make the art yours as well, not just take a photo of somebody else's- i.e. zoom in/make it abstract/use highlights and shadow to change it somehow, etc. Your observation gets right to the crux of the matter. In this series of 3 photos, was I succesful? Did I make my own statement? Did I bring something more to the graffiti with my camera that wasn't there before? Who knows..... What I saw was just writing on the wall. Was it a young prankster in the city core? Was it some deranged old drunken nutjob? There was *alot* of graffiti on that wall, but this is what caught my eye. I *do* appreciate your comments and observations though.

Hi Timbo, I like your graffiti photos and the question raised above is an interesting one.

Walker Evans was a master of this genre of course and it's all about what we see as photographers to make our own personal statement.

Sometimes just separating an image from the chaos is what good photography is all about, makes us contemplate they things that most people pass by, whether that be a single flower, an old fence post or someone elses artwork.

Keep shooting....cheers, Tony