All posts in graffiti

02Jul

graffiti of Interneppo, Bordano & Gemona

In graffiti, Holiday by admin / 20150702 / Comments are closed

Von kärnten kommend brausen die urlaubsmassen auf der friulanischen autostrada A23 durch das majestätische kanaltal der karnisch-julischen alpen richtung flachland – sonne, sand & meer respektive lignano, caorle und jesolo heißen die heißbegehrten ziele aller sonnenhungrigen, dass es schnellmöglichst zu erreichen gilt – ungeachtet der schönheit des oberen friauls.

coming from carinthia most sun hungry austrian rush along the autostrada A23 to quickly reach the upper adriatic beaches named ligniano, jesolo and caorle, leaving beside the wild beautiness of the upper friuli.

So ist es auch nicht verwunderlich, dass niemand von der wilden romantik des türkisblauen lago di cavazzo wahrnimmt und noch weniger von den leidvollen geschichte dieser region im ersten weltkrieg sowie des furchtbaren erdbebens am 6. mai 1976, dessen epizentrum vom direkt am see angrenzenden berg san simeone ausging und die dörfer interneppo, bordano sowie venzone vollständig zerstörte. als symbol der erneuerung und als hoffnung an eine erneute metamorhose der region wählten künstler die in dieser region heimischen farfalle (schmetterlinge) als ziermotiv für häuserwände. zudem findet sich in einer kehre der verbindungsstrasse bordano- interneppo eine hommage an italienische radsportgrößen.

so they don’t take any notice of the magic of the turqoise lake lago di cavazzo and the woebegone history of this region in first world war as well as the terrible earthquake, which happened on 6th may 1976 and destroyed the nearby villages interneppo, bordone and venzone, in which you can find beautiful butterflies painted on the houses as well as a painting of the all-time-stars of italien cycling.

das nur ein paar kilometer weiter südlich gelegene gemona besuchten wir kurz wegen des doms und des neuen, wiedererrichteten campanile, der ebenfalls ein ofer des erdbebens wurde. bei der weiterfahrt entdeckte ich in der nähe des bahnhofs ein paar tolle graffiti, bei denen ich nicht umhin kam, sie fotografisch festzuhalten. viel spaß beim betrachten dieser kunstwerke in meiner gallerie.

a few kilometres south we had a short break in gemona for visiting the cathedral and the newly errected campanile (tower), which has been destroyed during the quake, and discovered som really nice paintings / graffiti nearby the railway station. enjoy the artistic ideas behind them watching the pictures in my gallery.

03Jan

the art of graffiti – linz 2013

In Fuji X-Pro 1, General, graffiti, linz by admin / 20140103 / No Comments

i always connected grafitti with big cities like vienna, berlin, NY – overseeing the fact, that also linz seems to have a really vital scene – at least in terms of the speed the walls get overpainted ;-)

i became aware of some fabulous paintings in october ’13, while slendering along the river danube near the römerberg-tunnel and really was stunned about the high quality of the artwork. since then, i opened up my eyes, googled and found some more places – all of them officially released for graffiti paintings from the administration of linz – and even got in contact with some of the artists.

they paint as fast as i am able to take my shots, so they keep me rushing once a week through all the locations to document the goings-on.

as most of the paintings are done in pedestrian underpasses, photographers have to face with two imponderables – limited space and irregular lightning conditions.
the first thing simply can be surpassed with a wide angle lens. i mostly used the xf14 for taking the pictures, but somethimes wished to already own the forthcoming xf10-24 as tunnels offer limited possibilities to alter one’s own shooting position.
but i also like the pictures shot from a perspective view (with the xf18-55), as these add depth and a nice kind of athmospheric feeling, including the immediate surroundings like neon tubes, pedestrians and part of the floor and ceiling.

the different lightning conditions are a little bit more of a hard nut to crack. sure – the x-pro 1 is capable of delivering good high-iso shots, but the neonlights just burn in the night – making it even darker and more complicated during the daytime – and many of them are burned out, leaving dark areas on the walls and thus resulting in an unbalanced illumination.

a tripod of course can ease the problems, as well as using a flash – in my case a fuji ef-42 with soft bouncer – the latter with surprisingly good results compared to my old nikon d80-dslr with external metz af-48, although it also depends a lot on the colors used for the graffiti paintings itself. glossy silver or dark surfaces like brown and black deliver often unwanted bright spots during flashing, as the used acrylic spray print gets a highly smooth surface when dryed up reflecting light fairly well.

overall i’m quite pleased with the results i got and it’s in the nature of graffiti to produce punchy, colorful and highly saturated pictures, leaving plenty of room for post processing steps like applying b/w-conversion or trying out different film-simulation modi.
just in case you’re interested: the jpegs have been developed with corel’s aftershot (sometimes using sean m. pucket’s wonderful nostalgia plug-in), the raws undergone processing in LR5 with silver efex2. pictures in the gallery nearly all show the jpeg-version, as i am mostly quite pleased with the results i am able to obtain from them – so enjoy viewing them here..

***

so what about my new year-wish? linz, please give the boyz more space to paint!
and linz note:
there’s no fairy needed for fullfilling the wish to make all our lives a little bit more colorful – just a few more walls ;-)

“Guads Neichs” (= happy new year in upper austrian slang ;-) auch für euch Pius, Kosh, Syno, Keos, Hoek, Thys, Members of the One Two Crew, Method, Urag, ..

31Dec

graffiti sessions commendastrasse

In Fuji X-Pro 1, graffiti, linz by admin / 20131231 / No Comments

i sympathize with street artist!
they really are capable performers and show also a great portion of enthusiasm – they live their vison – chapeau for that..

graffiti has always been my favorite street art, well that may have something to do with the visual experience:
bright and colorful, trendy, loud, 3-dimensional, abstract – and sometimes really deconstucted – including a small portion of rebellion, all in all art not for the majorities – most people even find it destructive – unbelievable ;-)

all properties also can appear in photography – so maybe that’s the connecting context for me?

in late october and short before christmas i barged into an painting session nearby my home, which gave me the possibility to shoot some athmospheric pictures, which you can view here in my gallery.

ich sympathisiere mit den strassenkünstlern!
das sind nicht nur richtige könner, sondern zeigen oftmals auch einen (manchmal unbelohnten) enthusiasmus, der eine wahre freude ist.

graffiti war immer schon meine bevorzugte strassenkunst und das hat wohl auch mit den zu graffiti assoziierten eigenschaften zu tun:
intensiv und farbenfroh, laut, poppig, 3-dimensional, abstrakt – manchmal sogar richtig schön zerlegt (dekomposition) – vermischt mit einer portion rebellion, alles in allem keine massentaugliche kunstform – einige empfinden diese herrlichen werke sogar zerstörerisch – unglaublich ;-)

all diese eigenschaften finden sich teilweise auch in der fotografie wieder – vielleicht ist das der mich zu graffiti verbindende kontext?

ende oktober und kurz vor weihnachten platzte ich in eine “malsession” ganz in der nähe meines zuhauses und hatte die gelegenheit ein parar “athmospärenphotos” [(c) by pius] zu schiessen, die hier in der gallerie zum ansehen bereitstehen.

ps (1)
thanks to kosh for the “invitation” to watch the october session and thanks to pius for keeping me up-to-date!

ps (2)
i started to “document” some of the paintings in linz during the last two month, really exciting paintings – pictures will follow soon..