Street Art & Graffiti Photography

As a teenager, I had several paintings, drawings and even sculptures in the Leeds Art Gallery and on display within some of the cities NHS hospitals. During a period of two years, I won a few awards for my work, receiving mediocre acknowledgements and praise as a future artist. I was very young and, unfortunately, from a very poor background. The world of museums and galleries were a different life to my struggling existence - and that is an understatement. The school never thought to take me to see my displays and, quite frankly, my parents didn’t care.

Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, I was aware of toxic graffiti, often symbolic gestures of sexual acts or racist insults from people that the world had abandoned, ignored and was now systematically taking away their very work. Industries that their grandfathers had passed onto sons, and so on. The graffiti was harsh and reflective of a society’s betrayal. But, gradually, the graffiti changed into ‘tags’ and became more artful. Graffiti was becoming more acceptable and slowly exploded into the beautiful pieces of artwork that it represents today. My project was to capture some of the street art around the UK. So far, the strongest and artful work has been in London and Belfast, but I am hoping to discover more.

Enjoy the photography.

Belfast Street Art

London Street Art

Valencia Street Art

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