One more set from the archives. I love spotting Invader. This isn’t every shot I’ve captured over the years, but it does represent a set that I do like. I especially like the one from Rome next to the Borgia Stairs, since it combines two of my great loves- graffiti/street art and Renaissance Italy.
In case you were wondering about the project I mentioned in my first post, this is it. I’m doing a zine putting together some photos from my travels. It will feature photos from Boston, New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Miami, Los Angeles, Florence, Reykjavik and Dublin taken over the past decade and a half. There will be a sketched and signed limited edition of 30, for $30, and then an open run for $10. The mags are 8″ by 8″, perfect bound. More info as I get it.
This idea is fun for me as it extends the sharing and education I can do on the tours in both time (most of the pieces in the zine are gone) and space (I’m not available for tours in Rome, just yet.) It’s not quite as good as walking and talking with people here in Boston, but it’s still pretty cool. I hope you enjoy it when it’s out.
The cover photo is probably my favorite graffiti photo of all the thousands I’ve taken. It’s a Saber AWR MSK rooftop taken, on film, in 2000 in San Francisco. He was a big deal then (the LA river was done in 1997 so he was already huge in graffiti circles) and he’s only become a bigger deal since, riding the wave of street art and graffiti growth over the past 15 years. I also like it because it reminds me of the San Francisco I used to love. San Francisco has lost so much of the grimy charm it used to have.
I’ve got a small publishing project on the back burner and as I’m working on it I’m going through my archives of street art and graffiti photos looking for images that fit the project. Some of them deserve a share beyond that project. This is definitely one of them. I’ve loved REVS work since the 1990s, so anything he does is interesting to me. He’s one of the most primal graffiti writers of all time and, unlike someone like JA (a true force of nature when it comes to vandalism) REVS continually reinvents himself. He’s also remained steadfastly outside the mainstream as it’s continued to swallow up graffiti and street art culture. Seeing him hook up with AMAZE, a serious writer in his own right who is also very much inside the mainstream gallery/museum world now, for this roller was a fun capture. This kind of thing is why I still get out and walk the streets looking for new work. Long gone now, I’ve got a small record of this interesting collaboration between two artists from different coasts and different circles.