In cities everywhere citizens and artists alike use public spaces for artistic expression to make a statement, to catch a passerby’s eye and sometimes for no reason at all. It’s a pleasure for many to simply admire the art that occurs on public streets. Some people may not realize the amount of effort that was involved or the legal and physical risks that these individuals take. Some have been fined or put in jail and have put the act behind them. Others will continue regardless of consequence, inspiring more to “vandalize” walls or decorate the world in an artform that will surely never die. Some pieces will survive for a while and some will not. They may change and even disappear. As time passes the image deteriorates and erodes with the weather, is drawn on, pasted over, built up, renovated, torn down and reconstructed. Those works are fleeting - a moment in time - and most people will never have the opportunity to see them again or at all.
Many people stumble upon these unauthorized, largely unseen works or layering of works and document them using whatever camera they have on hand, intending to share with others or keep the image for themselves. There exists the rare opportunity to preserve the way they saw it in person. By capturing the visual in a photograph I effectively arrest that image in time. In this way the problem of losing the artworks as they were at that exact moment is mended. However by going a step further and by photographing in high resolution with a large sensor and 8 to 16 exposures each for HDR processing and manually augmenting color and texture I introduce a result that is similar to the work’s originally perceived or psychological effect; the way in which I see it. Then by printing on life-size canvas the texture and depth are even more noticeable and the viewer is transported to the scene of the work, the scale of the building or structure and its surrounding environment. The final product is an experience that rivals that of the original scene.
Anonymously placed on buildings and public spaces, street art exists with the inherent understanding that it may be torn down, painted over or re-vandalized at any moment. Because they are unable to take credit for their work or see who admires it, documenting these sites pays homage to the artists and individuals that placed slivers of themselves on a wall or structure. These scenes are preserved, recreated and presented for the artwork, its creator and its viewers.
