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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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

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.

So I went to see the “Né dans la rue” (Born in the Streets) graffiti expo at the Cartier Foundation in Paris. I was positively impressed by the expo.

As it was forbidden to take photos inside the expo I only managed to take a few outside which I have included on the bottom of the post.

The expo isn’t that big but is quite informative. It has video interviews with some of the early guys from the 1970s, a large collection of used magik markers and spray cans, a remake of one of the first full-car pieces from new york (life size). Lots of sketch books, it’s a great variety of stuff.

The expo mainly traces the origins of the graffiti movement from back in the 1970s to the early/mid 1980s.

I enjoyed the expo as it goes over the time period when I was deep into graffiti so I remember the artists of the time, the photos of the full-car, half-car pieces from New York that we would drool over. They were even projecting the movie “Wild Style” that I never got to see as a kid.

In short, while the expo is not comprehensive as the styles and quality of pieces these days is way above what it used to be, the expo is a great basic understanding of how the graffiti movement began and how it took off like it did. Organizationally, the only point I found missing is a sequence of viewing. Artistically, I would liked to have seen more follow up on the trends and offsprings of the graffiti movement, such as the stencils, tiles, and all the many other variations that it has taken.

I guess that will come one day.

But it was definitely a great expo and I recommend it!

Cartier Graffiti Expo - poster art

I’m looking forward to seeing the Cartier Graffiti expo (see their site: http://fondation.cartier.com/) they have an amazing flash site that’s pretty avant-garde.

Expo seems different from the TAG Expo that I went to see some time ago (blogged it then).

Have intentionally not read any other reviews or gone to see photos as I want to get there with a clean slate. Will shoot it and blog it on my return for those unlucky fellas that can’t go see it for themselves.

Blog soon.

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. [:-]

I’ve been living in Paris for the last year and as always I keep an eye for graffiti. I try to stick to the more interesting stuff, things that stand out of the usual a bit.

I have been noticing quite some Space Invader tile graffiti lately and gathered some shots of them. They aren’t the best shots from Invaders stuff but they are all from this month so it gives and idea where it’s at.

He’s got a video on youtube with an interview if you want to see it, nothing revealing but fun. He’s done some really funny stuff, like taking the map of a city and placing his pieces so once drawn on a map it makes the shape of a space invader.

I blogged him earlier when (see link here: http://marcozna.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/tile-mosaic-graffiti/) and you can find links to more info on that post.

Well, enjoy.

I recently went for a short trip to Hamburg and was pleasantly surprised by the city. A friend of mine showed me around the city and brought me to Sternschanze for a classic Curry Wurst (which I greatly enjoyed) and while there I had snapped some shots of some awesome graffiti pieces I noticed and really original stuff to. 

Here are some shots I took and I could have probably spent a whole day there just finding great stencils, tiles and poster art. Not to mention the other graffiti pieces. 

The graffiti covered building was pretty cool. The whole area is pretty graffiti covered though totally hip area and actually quite safe. Lots of great cafes, bars and shops. 

Otherwise there was time neat Tile Stencils that I haven’t seen before. They are well made since there is all the time in the world to paint them properly and in some cases I wasn’t even sure if they were graffiti or not. One of from the Piratos series that I discovered in World of Stencils (thanks Maya).

The majority of the Stencils are from ALIAS who per Maya is a Berlin artist but did quite some work in Hamburg too. 

She has a bunch of great stencils from Hamburg area (and elsewhere in the world) – I advise you check out her site too.

Sorry for some of the crap photo quality.

Enjoy.

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Spotted this piece in a street in Paris a few days ago. It only lived for about a week but was a pretty addition to an otherwise ugly wall. 

About 1.8m high it is one of the biggest Ludo pieces I have seen

It was almost 2 meters high and one of the biggest pieces I have seen. 

Ludo must have been a metro poster mounter before he because a Graffiti artist, as this must have been a right pain to get up. 

It’s got a bit of a message which is cool – and funily enough Similar to the Grenade Perfume Stencil I posted about some time ago. 

Well enjoy and if you have more links to his stuff post them in the comments.

Ok so I went to visit the expo and I can say it was not what I expected, but hey that doesn’t mean it was all crap.

When you come to the place the setting is amazing. It is THE Grand Palais in Paris, off the between Alexandre III Bridge and the Champs Elysees. Some of the most amazing architecture in France is in that area. I could ramble about it but the picture will explain better.

I thought it would be pictures of great pieces and a wide variety of graffiti types. Actually I thought this would be a sort of overview on graffiti. As the name T.A.G means Tag and Graffiti, however that isn’t what it is. It is a collection of graffiti by a variety of artists that Alain-Dominique Gallizia has managed to collect. There are some big names in there such as PhaseII and others. Gallizia basically contacted the artists and had them do a standard size piece for him on a theme.

My objection to this is that as it is done on a canvas in a workshop the quality should be 100%, the point is that it’s got to communicate. That’s probably why I like stencils so much (and to my disappointment there wasn’t a single stencil in the whole expo).

[addition]

I re-read my post and thought I would ad this (after the amazing comment from gmozz22) and want to make sure my post is somewhat objective.
1. If you like spray pieces then this is the expo for you. It has many many different styles – of the spray variety.
2. I would have preferred the pieces to be bigger as I felt they didn’t convey what a full graffiti piece is, but I understand it makes it difficult to transport.
3. What I didn’t know when looking up the expo on the net is that it is litterally two large wall panels of same-sized graffiti canvas’ – the entrance fee is 5 EUR which is about half the price of a normal expo.

Voila, now that was my view and up to you to make your own.

[;-]

Added: Lisa Forman (lisaforman.com) sent me a link to the photos she took when seeing the expo which I am publishing here (they are a lot better than mine) enjoy them http://lisaforman.zenfolio.com/p761974343