HDR Photography
The barbershop open at the mouth of a long street of shuttered, graffitied shops almost looks like a dressed set for a film; the visual interplay between the figure in the foreground and the distant figure at the end of the alley raises a question about their past or future interaction that I can’t answer.
Shooting summer landscapes in the Bay Area typically means swaths of gold, blue, and red. Bright pinks and magentas are much less common, but the jackets and graffiti of Grizzly Peak on this particular evening brought those novel hues.
Prague’s Lennon Wall has been continuously painted over and re-graffiti’ed for more than three decades. This moment in time, November 2019, provided plenty of bright colors to that stood out against the gray sky.
Interesting how the original message gets lost in the noise but is still somehow conveyed.
Since I left Berkeley, a major building in the downtown burned to the ground and the wreckage was removed. I don’t remember what once stood here. That correspondence—a building missing from reality and from my memory—seems fitting.
Seattle’s Pike Place Market has a lived-in, European aesthetic. Tiny stairways and doorways peak out from beneath railings and walkways. I half-expect to see a secret agent carefully eluding his pursuers in the complicated structures. Early on a Saturday morning, however, events seem just a bit calmer.
If you give people a maleable surface and some privacy they will almost undoubtedly deface it. This is certainly true on this soft, well-worn sea cliff on California’s coast. It was difficult to make out much of the writing but it is evident that someone sure wanted to make sure that heart would endure. Almost makes one wonder if the original artist periodically comes back to touch up and admire their handiwork or if the heart just serves as a painful reminder any more.
I previously posted a narrower shot of this heavily-graffitied gun battery in the Marin Headlands. It really is incredible how much time and effort have gone into layering art on top of a concrete structure that began as so monolithic and practical. Adding in the encroaching pine needles makes for one Hell of a juxtaposition.
Not all of Berkeley’s water ways are quite so picturesque as my previous post. I think this picture really captures the essence of Berkeley: a mixture of urban and natural elements. The contrast of the graffiti and cement tunnel with the overgrown ivy and the creek, just outside the Berkeley Faculty club, really sums this up.
The Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge are more than just a viewpoint to take great pictures of the Bridge. They’re also honeycombed with bunkers and gun batteries that once defended the West Coast. Long abandoned, these solid and imposing structures are now decorated with enormous amounts of graffiti. This small bunker is just the beginning of the incredible art at these batteries.
Decaseconds 