I'm NOT watching you... (and some graffiti)

ivar · March 2, 2008

I was out for a little bit today, looking around for something to shoot; This is what I came up with:

I ran across quite a bit of graffiti as well:

Comments and Critique are most appreciated!

Moni · March 2, 2008

Wow! The composition of #1 is fantastic. I like that the holes are off centre from one another.
Can you describe what I'm looking at? What are the holes? Why are there eyes in the last hole? How long did you have to wait for people to walk by?

Looking at #2, it seemed like you had a circle theme going.

And the cat in #3 looks like he is going to jump out of the wall. Good angle on that one!

eL eSs Vee · March 2, 2008

These are incredible, Ivar. The holes keep me coming back.

Your graffiti shots have a lot of punch. The focus, contrast and colors are incredible.

I wish there was more like that in Los Angeles. There is some, but it's still aimed at marking territory like a dog. Some of it is beautiful, but I'd be afraid to photograph it for fear of being shot by gang members. (It's getting really bad here. Just three nights ago there was a drive-by around the corner from me. First one ever in my neighborhood. :cry)

Sorry for the social commentary.

Great work!

Chrissiebeez_NL · March 2, 2008

very nice ivar!

i'm assuming the first photo is shot in a metro? (i might be cheating a bit because ivar lives in the same country as i do

)

think the crops work well with the lines and the grafity in the last two!

ShepsMom · March 2, 2008

These are reaaallyyyy nice Ivar

schmoo · March 2, 2008

Ooo I love these! :ivar

The composition of the first is really great! The motion blur of the people really adds to that sneaky urban feeling. Especially with the eyes! What kind of peephole is that?

I think the lines of the path work really well for drawing the eyes along the walls to "read" the graffiti. Amazing artists in your town! The last one is probably my favorite because the small amount of color at the vanishing point is really the reward at the end of all that monochrome stuff in the foreground. But again the lines just pull you in.

ivar · March 2, 2008

Moni wrote:

Wow! The composition of #1 is fantastic. I like that the holes are off centre from one another.
Can you describe what I'm looking at? What are the holes? Why are there eyes in the last hole? How long did you have to wait for people to walk by?

Looking at #2, it seemed like you had a circle theme going.

And the cat in #3 looks like he is going to jump out of the wall. Good angle on that one!

Thanks, Moni!

The first shot was taken underneath a railway-bridge. On the side where I was standing, there was a sidewalk, and a bicycle lane. Then two car lanes, and another bicycle lane & sidewalk. The sidewalks were a good bit higher than the rest.

The eyes are artwork on the walls.

Chrissiebeez_NL wrote:

very nice ivar!

i'm assuming the first photo is shot in a metro? (i might be cheating a bit because ivar lives in the same country as i do )

think the crops work well with the lines and the grafity in the last two!

Nope, no metro

Underneath a bridge. We don't even have a metro here in Utrecht, I think.

Thanks for the comments, Chris

ivar · March 2, 2008

eL eSs Vee wrote:

These are incredible, Ivar. The holes keep me coming back.

Your graffiti shots have a lot of punch. The focus, contrast and colors are incredible. I wish there was more like that in Los Angeles. There is some, but it's still aimed at marking territory like a dog. Some of it is beautiful, but I'd be afraid to photograph it for fear of being shot by gang members. (It's getting really bad here. Just three nights ago there was a drive-by around the corner from me. First one ever in my neighborhood. :cry)

Sorry for the social commentary.

Great work!

Thanks! :curtsey

I actually hardly did any processing to the shots. The graffiti was pretty 'punchy' on its own

The graffiti was actually on the sides of a bicycle lane, no sidewalk, so I was dodging bicycles a bit every now and then

ivar · March 2, 2008

ShepsMom wrote:

These are reaaallyyyy nice Ivar

Thanks, Marina!

ivar · March 2, 2008

schmoo wrote:

Ooo I love these! :ivar

The composition of the first is really great! The motion blur of the people really adds to that sneaky urban feeling. Especially with the eyes! What kind of peephole is that?

I think the lines of the path work really well for drawing the eyes along the walls to "read" the graffiti. Amazing artists in your town! The last one is probably my favorite because the small amount of color at the vanishing point is really the reward at the end of all that monochrome stuff in the foreground. But again the lines just pull you in.

Thanks, Schmoo

The 'peephole' is underneath a bridge, not far from where the graffiti shots were taken, actually. The second graffiti shot is also my favorite.

The sides of the bicycle lane are actually 'graffiti walls', it's legal to paint them.

Skippy · March 2, 2008

ivar wrote:

I was out for a little bit today, looking around for something to shoot; This is what I came up with:

I ran across quite a bit of graffiti as well:
Comments and Critique are most appreciated!

Wow Ivar that first shot is really something special

:ivar
Its like a picture within a picture, very creative indeed!

Love the graffiti walls, some great talent there.
We have one whole street done like this (legal) but other graffiti wannabe's
have started to destroy the works by putting their silly awful signatures over the top of the existing work.

Felix the cat hahaha I remember that old show from back when I was a kid.

Great Post Ivar, thanks for sharing

... Skippy

.

ivar · March 3, 2008

Skippy wrote:

Wow Ivar that first shot is really something special :ivar
Its like a picture within a picture, very creative indeed!

Love the graffiti walls, some great talent there.
We have one whole street done like this (legal) but other graffiti wannabe's
have started to destroy the works by putting their silly awful signatures over the top of the existing work.

Felix the cat hahaha I remember that old show from back when I was a kid.

Great Post Ivar, thanks for sharing ... Skippy
.

Thanks, Skippy :curtsey

There is actually not a lot of graffiti around, where I live. But these walls are legal places. Mainly it is done to prevent to 'tagging' or 'ugly' graffiti. For the same reason, they painted a temporary building at my old High School.

The interesting thing is, I've never actually seen Felix the Cat before, here in the NL. I don't remember any comics or cartoons of him

DavidTO · March 3, 2008

ChrisJ · March 3, 2008

#1 is outstanding! There are some really good graffiti artists there. The golden face in #2 with the smiley on the forehead is creepy!

ivar · March 4, 2008

DavidTO wrote:

more bows... Thanks, David

ivar · March 4, 2008

ChrisJ wrote:

#1 is outstanding! There are some really good graffiti artists there. The golden face in #2 with the smiley on the forehead is creepy!

Hahaha, I never thought of it as being creepy, but I guess I could see that

I should go find some more graffiti, it's a willing model usually, and it always sits still

Arvan · March 4, 2008

I love the first one! it´s catches your eye...i spent much time lookin on this one.

ANd i allso love the great contrast pop you got there on the graffiti photos. I do the same on mine. They stand out so much better if you "pop" it a bit

. wounderful wall with great art on it..would love to shoot there!.

Thanx for sharing.

ivar · March 9, 2008

Arvan wrote:

I love the first one! it´s catches your eye...i spent much time lookin on this one.

ANd i allso love the great contrast pop you got there on the graffiti photos. I do the same on mine. They stand out so much better if you "pop" it a bit . wounderful wall with great art on it..would love to shoot there!.

Thanx for sharing.

Thanks arvan,

The walls are actually pretty neat; They are part of a tunnel as well. Total length is at least a few hundred meters, I would say.

I added very little pop actually, the walls are pretty 'poppy' on their own. These pieces seemed to stand out a bit more also, maybe they were relatively recent?