Project Title: Graff
Project Description: I don’t believe that many would be shocked if someone were to say that New York City is one of the greatest cities on Earth. The city offers a lot of things for anyone and everyone, and continues to surpass expectations with constant innovation. One thing that always fascinates me personally about New York is the ability that many possess inside the city to ignore things within their surroundings. Whether it be good or bad, many are often within their own world when they go out in NYC which results in a lot of things within their environment going unnoticed or simply ignored. This idea has been present within many works over time, most notably in Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives in which he documented the struggles and harsh living conditions of the impoverished immigrants in New York City during the early twentieth century. Graffiti in New York is a large thing that goes unnoticed quite often if it’s not on a large scale. Given this, within this project I will explore and photograph unnoticed pieces of Graffiti throughout New York City, to bring attention toward beauty that may be lost and overlooked within the chaos attributed to the city.
Within this project I’ll be photographing and editing a series of images contrasting the wall art within NYC that gains a plethora of attention against the more unnoticed and ignored graffiti. In order to do this, I’ll be travelling throughout the five boroughs to various popular locations and tourist spots as well as parts of the city that are much less “tourist-like” in comparison. A key part of this project will not only be the setting in which these pieces of art are located, but the time of day as well. Although not bound to it, I feel as though a lot of Graffiti has a much more nocturnal presence whereas popular wall art has a much bigger presence during the day. Given this information, I will be shooting at various times of day to create a juxtaposition between the two similar, yet very different forms of art I’ll be capturing.
Outcomes: A series of 8 photographs capturing various pieces of wall art and graffiti within the streets of New York City (Four Photographs Each)
Methods & Materials:
The images containing street art will be shot free handedly
The images containing Graffiti will be shot on a tripod
All images will be shot on a 50mm f/1.8 lens
References and Inspiration:
