Marks and Meaning

Usually I’m a bit reluctant to include any text in my compositions because you never know how a viewer might react to a fragment of text, how they might read it. It can be a real distraction, and even run counter to my overall intent for the image. But since I don’t read Japanese, text becomes a simple graphic element to play around with. Here for instance, I just like the overall composition, and possible misreadings of the text don’t enter into it for me. If you’re Japanese you might beg to differ.

Making marks and taking notes

I suspect this old van, which I photographed in NYC way back in the day, was actually owned by an artist or a group of artists, and they chose to cover its rotten paint job with graffiti. If you look closely, you'll see that it comes with instructions, "CONSIDER THIS ART". Very helpful, although by now, the issue is probably settled for most of us. 

I am happy to have captured this record of the early days of street art on film -- it was an exciting time. Some have even called it utopian. As I drink my tea and allow my mind to wander, I find myself contemplating whether images of public art can be considered works of art in their own right.