Eiffel Tower Amazing Photography

I’ve been interesting myself in photography lately and was checking out some other photographer’s site. photoserge.com has some great stuff the recent series on the Eiffel Tower are pretty amazing. I selected the black and white one to put in my blog.

Eiffel Tower black and white, amazing

I love the eye trail on this one. Go check out http://www.photoserge.com for more great shots.

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History of a Graffiti Wall in Paris – rue Jean Poulmarch

Over the last year I have been walking down the Jean Poulmarch street near the Canal St Martin. And I noted that there is a huge canvass in that street for graffiti artists. Every time I noticed something different I took a shot of it and recently thought I would post them all here.

Realize that all these changes happened within one year. I also linked to the Google map for anyone who is going to be passing by at the bottom of the post.

Here’s how it looked like when I first saw it back in 2008. I blogged about it then in a post entitled Graffiti: Art or Vandalism in fact the photo I had on that post shows two guys doing something I can’t quite figure out… well, back to the post – here is a better version of that photo.

Poulmarch Graffiti Wall Paris, summer 2008

Then later on it got tagged on and postered on and eventually it was all painted white. And someone did a photo expo on the wall. That lasted a few days and looked like this (not my photo – credit goes to Fondarmental)

Poulmarch Graffiti Wall Paris, winter 2008

Later in early 2009 I walked by and saw someone what totally redone the wall, by that time the photo expo had been gone for a while and taggers had returned to mark their territory once again. But someone came and made a massive poster with great lettering, for a sentence I had a hard time deciphering it reads “I am everywhere” I think the artist is called The Atlas.

Poulmarch Graffiti Wall Paris, early 2009 - I AM EVERYWHERE by ATLAS

But that didn’t last very long either, for reasons I don’t know. And more recently an association called Fondarmental (see their blog here: http://grafflapointepoulmarch.over-blog.com/) redid the wall entirely. I spoke to two of the artists that were doing the wall and they were telling me they get authorization from the Paris City administration to do these paintings. The reason Mr Indy is still in the picture all the time is that he is over the 5 meters limit, above which the City isn’t allowed to paint over.

So here is what it looked like more recently when the artists were working on it:

Poulmarch Graffiti Wall Paris, summer 2009

And how it is complete:

Poulmarch Graffiti Wall Paris, summer 2009 completed

If you are in Paris, here it is on a map click on the image below:

Click on the link to see this on Google Maps

Stencil and Graffiti mélange

On my way home the other day I spotted a pretty large graffiti collection on a single wall. It’s a great mix of stencil pieces by Jeff Aerosol a White Man (paint) by Jerome Mesnager, a stencil by Pimax and a poster grafitti by Speedy Graphito.

It’s been there for quite a while so it is probably comissioned by the locals or somehow protected. It is located in the famed Latin Quarter of Paris and let me tell you that the City of Paris would have taken this down within hours if it wasn’t somehow protected.

It’s a pity that someone painted over the head of the White Man by Mesnager.

Otherwise it’s a great collection of some of Paris’ biggest and most original guys.

You can find the piece on Google street view below (with the head on the White Man) its on Rue des Feuillantines.

Blogging the white grafitti men from iPhone

Canal saint martin has a great bunch on graffiti stuff most of it is of the nicer styles just like this masterpiece of “homme blanc” or white man by Jerome Mesnager.
I noticed it by chance when driving by the other day. I just had to get off my scooter and shoot it.
I blogged him earlier in a post called “Nemo stencil graffiti in Paris”.
Enjoy and as a note. This post was done entirely from my iPhone hope it looks normal. [:-]

Tile Mosaic Graffiti

 

A Tile graffiti from Invader

I’ve blogged several different types of graffiti. But not Mosaic Graffiti… Actually I discovered this in the streets of Paris. I saw a few of them and wondered if this was something official, maybe some type of modern art (there has been some pretty weird legal modern art stuff around).  But speaking with a friend I found out that this is actually graffiti. 

It’s some of the nicest graffiti I have seen, not too loud, not too big but nice and funny.

It’s done by Invader, there’s more information on his graffiti here. He has done hundreds of these all over the world. 

More coming…

[;-]

Nemo stencil graffiti in Paris

Nemo stencil in Paris - notice the white man climbing the wall

 

I spotted this stencil in Paris recently and found it quite nice. It is by an artist called Nemo, and has done quite some stencil work in Paris.

Nemo is known for selecting spaces that look bad and doing his piece there. Such as a destroyed wall etc, while not the same witty style as Bansky and Dolk he is rather artistic and almost poetic in his way. There is a lot happening in his piece. It isn’t sure if Nemo and Jerome Mesnager are the same person but the pieces are often linked. 

Jerome also did the art for an entire hotel in Paris called Hotel des Academies et des Arts, check out their site – it is a great idea for an artist to do.

Voila – am looking out for more.

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Graffiti, art or vandalism? my take

On www.duncancumming.co.uk you can follow the story of how a graffiti artist in Scotland got caught and was about to spend 28 month in prison for vandalism. This brings up the eternal question, is graffiti an art or is it vandalism?

That graffiti is art is no question, the use of color, lettering and communication is exactly what art is all about. Look at some of the stencils and pieces by the biggest street artists, they actually deliver a message.

That graffiti is vandalism is an understandable point as well. I wouldn’t like to wake up one morning and find my newly renovated house covered in a graffiti piece. No matter how nice it is it may just not fit with the deco that I chose for the place.

So?

It needs to be done intelligently for everyone’s benefit. A graffiti piece can totally decorate an appropriate location. See this photo for example. It may or may not be authorized graffiti, but it fits the urban area. Try doing this on the Louvre and yes, that would be vandalism.

Graffiti wall paris (taken with mobile phone)

 The graffiti sort of “protects” the wall from being covered in all sorts of other crap. Additionally this fits the young people that hang out in the area and they don’t mind it.

If a street artist places his pieces intelligently it actually doesn’t harm but can help. Where it becomes stupid is when the Graffiti guys just do it for the adrenaline (yes I know it is part of the kick). There has to be a balance.

 

Graffiti Marketing for Radio Nostalgie

 

 

And if an artist did vandalise a wall, then pull him by the scruff of the neck and get him to spend his night cleaning it up and repainting it at his cost, he can take responsibility for what he did. Trying to jail someone for 28 month for graffiti is lame, that is the work of someone who is so lazy that he can’t even make him fix what he did wrong. 

I know that is the way because I went that way and the most efficient way to make a bad thing into a good thing is to take responsibility for what one has done and use the effort to become more competent and help others. I saw how many former street artists of my time became graphic designers, well that’s a great way to use the skill.

And here is a short video on how that can be done…

Feel free to comment, and vote.

[;-]

Another Amazing surreal photo of Paris

A few weeks ago I blogged about the photos from Serge of Paris and other areas. He recently redid his site and the result is quite nice, all done in WordPress (yes I did have a word to say in that). 

His new site looks like this, the landing page is his blog which is great as it keeps the site alive and human. 

I suggest you check it out here. 

The new site of Serge on www.photoserge.com

One of the shots is an amazing black and white shot of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The sky is pretty nice and the museum too, but the most amazing in this shot is the sharpness and light effects on the rhinoceros. It is not just the contrast of the photo but the contrast of a rhino overlooking Paris. 

www.photoserge.com - another amazing shot of Paris

click on the link on the site or here: http://www.photoserge.com sit back and enjoy.

[;-]

The Paris 10eme Stencils series

Recently while going through the 10th Arrondissement (district) of Paris I noticed some nice graffiti pieces and a few stencils. Actually I saw quite some stencils, but I wont blog them all as they are such a long way away from Banksy, Dolk or Blek le Rat (i.e. they lack communication and humor).

There was this stencil which is on a shop window and seems to be the logo of the shop, artist seems to be someone called “ezy” or “ezp” – I will be on the lookout for more by him.

More coming soon.

Cheers  [;-]

Free Music downloads and Peter von Poehl

rcrdlbl.com is a site that offers free and legal music downloads. I found them searching for info on Peter von Poehl who is a Swedish singer that is relatively big in France but not much in Sweden.

He wrote a great song that is used in the TV commercial of Clairefontaine (a notepad producer in France). The song in the commercial is called “The Story of the Impossible” check out the video on YouTube here.

There is a free mp3 download offered on rcrdlbl.com which you can get here.

Check it out, it is quite nice, pretty soft. Well certainly a difference from Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party which I blogged earlier.

Press play, sit back and enjoy.

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