Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Art By The Square Yard.

I was looking for something on my computer today and ran across these shots I took while scouting a show a few years ago.  I haven't been back to this street since I shot these, and I heard the buildings might be torn down for redevelopment, so when I'll speak of the place in the present tense even though past tense may be more accurate.

Anyway, these are some shots of 5Pointz, a self-described "Institute of Higher Burnin" in Long Island City (Queens).  The shots I've got are only a small fraction of what exists. And regardless of what you may think about graffiti, you've got to admit this is pretty damned awesome. (Comments about wildlife and nature being better will be summarily deleted - Nothing ever tried to bite me in Long Island City.)










2 comments:

Gristle McThornbody said...

That's some cool stuff. I always wonder how many of those guys do tattoos - a lot of the art looks similar.

One thing is driving me nuts (or, more nuts, or whatever) - in picture 8 does the yellow sign say "No photoshoots or videos without permission"? WTF?

Nathan said...

That sign is sorta, kinda the definition of irony. Granted, they've got the authority to make that rule if you actually are on their property (the parking lot in front of the building), but they wouldn't have any authority if you're shooting from the street.

Here we have a bunch of graffiti artists who made their "bones" tagging property without permission and they've established this massive canvas...where graffiti artist have to get permission to write graffiti. Then they want to protect their intellectual rights..uh, yeah.

I suppose if you shot a film and highlighted any of the graffiti (as opposed to it being incidental background), they might have a case against you. But if you wanted to shoot on the street, that's a city permit and they'd have no control over it.

And you could say you never trespassed on their property, so you never noticed the sign in the first place! :)