Photographing Graffitti

I have an assignment on documentary photography and am doing it on

graffitti....does anyone know the best way to photograph it?

I'd start with a camera of some sort. Then try to point it at some graffiti...

A polarizing filter will push the colors - if You shoot black&white try some green or orange

filters. I would try some longtime-exposures with ghosting artists or passants. You could

even try some kind of multi-exposure or a sequence.

Please excuse my funny English, Georg.

Watch your exposure. Much graffiti is darker than 18% gray. Use exposure control to avoid overexposure and get rich colors. Check your histogram if digital. Good composition is always in style. Good luck!<div></div>

You often see the same thing graffitti'd in a few different places in the same vicinity which might make some good shots that relate to each other.

Get the right size please! Sorry about that.<div></div>

Its really not terribly difficult, especially if you're shooting from front on. Its flat so you don't need to worry about depth of field; it generally has some sharp lines you can focus on. Its not moving so if shooting digitally you can check the histogram and white balance and retake if necessary and even if you screw up a bit there's always photoshop. About the only things you need to do are to use a fast enough ISO to avoid shadow noise and to frame it right.

 

Oh- and one other thing- its been done a million times. If you want to do anything remotely original you're going to need a different approach. You will need to decide whether you want to show the graffiti in the context of where it is, or just the graffiti itself -depending on what you're trying to document. Of course if you wanted to be a little different you could work to win the confidence of some artists who might let you photograph the process of making graffiti- but then thats more difficult than just photographing whats there.

<div></div>

Try to add people or movement to what is a very fixed, flat subject. Also, message grafitti has more interest.

 

<center><img src=http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5875184-lg.jpg></center>

<center><img src=http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5875185-lg.jpg></center>

 

<center><em>Koenji, Tokyo</em></center>

Add an extra element to add interest. Also, great light cures a lot of sins...<BR><P>

<center>

<img src= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images19/SFWeb%204-03-

07/image/lildog.jpg"><P>

<img src= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images19/SFWeb%204-03-

07/image/walkerpurse.jpg"><P>

<img src= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images19/HeadlandsWeb%202-16-

07/image/escape.jpg">

</center>

<Of course if you wanted to be a little different you could work to win the confidence of some artists who might let you photograph the process of making graffiti...>

 

If you take that route, bring bail money.

 

Some outdoor art is done with the permission of the property owner, but most tagging is simply vandalism. Documenting it afer the fact is fine. Joining the crew, however, leaves you open to a charge of aiding and abetting.

 

"It was going to happen anyway and I was just taking pictures" is a valid defense, but it's a defense you may have to raise if you're swept up with the vandals. In another context, Heisenberg taught us that you cannot observe an event without affecting it. Responsible journalists have come to realize that his observation can be valid of human activity, too.

 

I accept that some people are fascinated by graffiti, but here in New York we have spent countless millions of dollars, taxpayer and private, to prevent it, erase it or cover it over. Graffiti was most prevalent when the city was at its economic and social nadir and has become much less common as the city has bounced back.

 

Good luck with your documentation of graffiti that already exists. Perhaps your pictures will help people appreciate just how anti-social graffiti really is.

 

As an alternative, you might want to document a community's attempts to rid itself of graffiti. Now *that* would be a little different.

<p>Nah, don't listen to what people on this forum say.</p>

 

<p>If you're going to photograph graffiti, photograph

<i>graffiti</i> and not dogs, bikers, women with handbags, and

freakin' "One Way" signs.</p>

 

<p>If you're going to photograph graffiti, either <i>show</i>

graffiti or show it as a part of the surrounding architectural

landscape. I'm sorry, but graffiti has no relationship to puppies,

stray cats, and women with handbags.</p>

 

<p>If you decide not to show it as a part of a landscape, here is a

$64,000 suggestion to you: get a digital camera, photograph all

parts of graffiti at 90-degree angles to the wall, correct

perspective digitally, and stitch the photos together. Yeah,

expensive, but you've got to suffer for your art, don't you? Then

hang the print on the same wall as graffiti and watch the rain

destroy it.</p>

"I'm sorry, but graffiti has no relationship to puppies, stray cats,..." :-)<div></div>

Before doing it I would look at some work by Aaron Siskind who shot B+W abstract of primarily 2 diminionsal subjects. For Graffitti with people a great example is Bruce Davidson's "Subway"

That's not graffiti<br /><br />

THIS is graffiti:<br />

<img src="http://eugenescherba.com/medium/46cf8dd813506" />

I'm not sure if this is graffiti, although the area was so abandoned it wasn't a public works project.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/spain/wallsandwindows/images/grafart.jpg"><br><i>Hera Loomit Sevilla, Copyright 2005 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

On the other hand, this was definitely graffiti. What this line was doing in Granada escapes me.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/spain/wallsandwindows/images/newmexico.jpg"><br>New Mexico Blows, Copyright 2005 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

<center>

<img src= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images4/Headlands_Web_9-4-

04/image/parissucks.jpg">

</canter>

<div></div>

<div></div>

<div></div>

<div></div>

if you are shooting film, try velvia.

<center>

Wow, what a hippy trippy spin-out guys<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/6343903-md.jpg">

</center>

<center>

Maybe you need to fall in love<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/6248196-md.jpg"><br>

Or just find something that sympathises with you...

</center>