Want some fresh, offbeat material to re-awaken your photo spirit? Add some chutzpa to your next photo album by throwing some street art into the mix.
Colorful, eye-catching and usually illegal, graffiti can add a daring, out-of-the-ordinary aspect to any collection even though it's as common as gum on the sidewalk.
Capturing this art form is not a typical walk in the park - you'll have to work a little bit harder, dig a little bit deeper, and be more adventuresome. Your reward will be stories of urban exploration and photos that spark up a conversation.
This example was found on the side of a funky urban bakery.
Graffiti is usually found scrawled on the underbelly of a city - places where people can go undisturbed as they spray paint their "tags". The best time to shoot graffiti is therefore during the day, when the less traveled parts of a city are safer to tour around. Then again, if you feel safe in an area, night shots of graffiti can add aura of danger and bring you closer to the original artists who almost invariably work at night.
Here is a list of locations where you're likely to find graffiti:
- Core urban settings
- Alleyways/rear walls of buildings
- Older, abandoned or derelict buildings
- Skate-parks
- Parking lots
- Culverts
- Concrete waterways
- Subway cars, platforms and tunnels
Here is a good example of a tag:
As with others types of photography, it's best to take a number of shots from different angles so you can choose the best of the bunch. Check them on your LCD screen, but don't delete any until you check them on your computer. You may find you are able to manipulate after the fact to surprising effect.
You can either shoot close-ups, or step back to capture the surrounding landscape -- below are close-up versions of the first two examples above. Close-ups make for better artistic photos, whereas shots taken at a distance provide a more journalistic perspective on underground urban culture.
Framing graffiti is difficult since a lot of pieces stretch much wider than the lens of your average digital camera. If you want to capture the entirety of a long mural, you may have to use a wide-angle zoom lens or sacrifice some detail by setting up far enough away from the subject. It's recommended you take at least a few shots of the artwork up close, though, since so many pieces have been done in exquisite detail.
Go ahead and give graffiti a try. If you're lucky, you'll catch someone in the act of creating a street-level masterpiece.