An alley in Ghent, Belgium is called the “graffiti street” or the “graffiti alley.” (The latter is more apt, since it is a very narrow walkway.) The walls (and sometimes the pavement) are covered with a wild mix of tags, graffiti, and street art. New imagery is continuously added on top of the old, and the intersections of these old and new images can be fascinating.
I have mixed feelings about photographing graffiti and street art, at least when it isn’t just an unavoidable element of the scene or an embellishment on other subjects. But here, the individual work is subsumed by the sum of it all, and in ways that hardly could have been anticipated by those who produced the deeper layers.
Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
