Final Photo Project

This photographic series is inspired by the work of Martha Cooper. Cooper is best known for her work in the 70's and 80's for documenting the New York graffiti scene. Graffiti is often times frowned upon when to many it is an outlet to express themselves as in any other art form. For this project I wanted to look at graffiti in the ways of being commissioned vs. "against the law" free work. In a city expression and creativity is only allowed to a certain extent--as far as the city and the government will allow it. The underground art scene has to sacrifice their creative freedoms, this being they either have to sneak out in the early hours of the night and go "bombing" and create something they see as a masterpiece only for it to get painted over within the week--if they're lucky it will not get disturbed--or for them to get commissioned work where they are creating something for someone else to allow for their work to be seen. This may not be the case in every city of course but as far as Tucson goes, what I have noticed is the work that is left is in ally ways or washes that no one sees on a daily basis or it is something that has been paid for.

Traci Smead.

This piece was in an empty lot behind a boxing studio, which is where I photographed many images.

This image was on the back of a bathroom door inside a bar down on Congress

This image was also in the vacant lot behind the boxing studio

These images were found on the side of a smoke shop