Beautiful Street Art: How to See and Capture Hidden Delights
Colorful street art at the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
What I love most about street art is how it opens up previously derelict areas, such as city laneways, bringing them back to life and attracting interested locals and tourists who are able to discover beauty in environments reborn and rediscovered.
Beautiful street art illustrates all manner of social, political and environmental themes. Contributing to the revival of inner city neighborhoods, beautiful street art provides urban artists with opportunities to showcase their art to the public in visually dynamic and thought provoking ways.
I’m totally supportive of policies from municipal governments and local councils that actively encourage and promote street art.
What’s more, I really enjoy photographing visually dynamic, creative art and look forward to photographing great examples of street art, like the above example I photographed at the iconic East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
There’s more than a bit of cubism going on in this work, and I found the interplay between two and three dimensional space to be really eye catching.
Likewise, the strong, graphic shapes and the dominant yellow and red hues made for a compelling viewing experience.
It’s a fantastic example of street art, which I’m really glad was showcased in a public and relatively accessible place.
Street art depicting action at the East Side Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
Beautiful Street Art At The East Side Gallery, Berlin
There’s no doubt that the East Side Gallery in Berlin contains some of the best street art I’ve ever seen. Situated parallel to the River Spree, the East Side Gallery marks part of the former border that existed between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.
Today this historically important site displays a large amount of street art that explores a significant time of change for the people of Germany. Indeed, many of the works on display showcase the hopes of the featured artists for a better future for the German people.
This 1,316 meter section of the former Berlin Wall is situated right next to the busy and historically significant Mühlenstraße. It’s a wonderful place to explore and photograph.
During my visit I was surprised that most of the street art was behind a thick wire barricade. No doubt the barricade is used as a way of protecting these beautiful works of art from tagging and other forms of vandalism.
While some folks condone tagging, believing it to be part of the ongoing life cycle of street art, I find it visually offensive. Regardless, unlike a lot of other street art, the works at the East Side Gallery are historically important and need to be protected.
Nonetheless, I desperately wanted to document some of this art work and, where possible, making images that explored my own, personal response to the street art on display.
Fortunately, there was just enough room for me to poke my camera’s lens through the wire and make some photos. I managed to photograph quite a few works from the East Side Gallery in this way.
Thank goodness because I’d walked a long way, in sweltering temperatures reaching above 95°F (35°C), to reach the site containing the East Side Gallery. I got lost on the way and, by the time I arrived, I felt pretty beat up.
It would have been extremely disappointing not to have been able to photograph some of the splendid art showcased.
My visit was right at the end of a strenuous European adventure. I was worn out, tired and, given the fact that I’d be stumbling around in unusually high summer heat, probably dehydrated.
What’s more, I’d been managing severely blistered feet and I was in considerable discomfort. But life’s not always easy and I’m so glad I persisted.
You can’t imagine how thankful I was to have had the opportunity to visit and photograph the East Side Gallery and I hope that, by publishing these photos on this site, I’II be doing my bit to help preserve some of the beautiful street art from this wonderful and historically important site.
Street art showing two soldiers in gas masks firing a machine gun.
Unusual And Unexpected Melbourne Street Art
I don't know about you, but I love street art.
This scene depicts two soldiers, probably from the First World War, firing a machine gun while wearing gas masks. The interesting thing is that this is only a small part of a much larger work which showed a ballerina/fairy/goddess figure hovering over the soldiers.
I found it in a secluded part of Centre Place (which I believe was commonly referred to as Soup Alley during the 1980's) in Melbourne, Australia.
I’d often take photography students to this site to photograph the street art under low light conditions. It was always a challenging and fun experience, particularly during evening sessions.
I believe the entire scene illustrated an interesting example of duality, exploring notions of beauty and horror, and an example of how an image can present the viewer with multiply layers of meaning.
For my own photo I thought it was important to keep the message as pure as possible. As a consequence I decided to render the original image into black and white.
That decision helped to emphasize the lines and shapes that are dominant in this particular composition.
I photographed this particular painting several times though, by the time this image was made, the rest of the painting had faded and become a target of very aggressive tagging.
To my mind great street art, particularly when placed in areas set aside specifically for this kind of expression, is valuable, soul enriching and beautiful. Conversely, I consider tagging street art to be a particularly horrid form of vandalism.
In the world of art you might call it a sin.
Melbourne has become a great place for street art. If you’re in or close to the city you’ll want to check out these locations:
Hosier Lane
Rutledge Lane
Cocker Alley
Croft Alley
Centre Place
AC/DC Lane
Duckboard Place
Caledonian Lane
Luminous street art of a butterfly painted face in Hosier Lane, Melbourne.
Street Art in Hosier Lane, Melbourne
Hosier Lane is one of Melbourne’s most famous street art sites. Because of it’s relatively large size and position in the CBD it’s also probably Melbourne’s most popular.
The art changes frequently in Hosier Lane, which is one of the reasons it's such a fun place to visit, again and again.
I made the above photo with my Sony camera set to ISO 800 at a shutter speed of 1/250 second and an aperture of f/4.
Unfortunately there’s a lot of tagging going on in Hosier Lane these days.
I think that’s a pity as some of the street art produced, particularly the portraits, is stunning.
Covering that work with tagging is, to my way of thinking, extremely regrettable.
Saying otherwise makes no sense to me.
There’s just no need to lose ourselves in overly philosophical discussions on the nature of beauty, freedom of expression or the difference between street art and graffiti.
Vandalism is vandalism and there are commonly accepted norms of behavior that need to be adhered to.
While you might think it’s your right to tag quality artwork in a public space, I do not think you have a right to spoil the beauty of the site and of individual street art through a gesture of juvenile defiance.
There’s an important line in Star Trek canon where Spock says to Kirk that, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
The moral theory that’s expressed in that line is known as utilitarianism. The concept being that everyone should try to serve the greater good for the greater number of people.
For the most part I believe that concept to be both fair and reasonable.
In this particular context it would follow that you should not deface beautiful artwork because, as a result of doing so, you’d negatively impact on the experience most folks would have when visiting that site.
Again, it’s a simple concept that I believe is fair and reasonable.
That’s my opinion, though I’m always happy to hear other points of view when they’re reasonably expressed.
Street art sites like Hosier Lane have been given over to artists as places where they can legally produce and display their talents in a safe environment.
But it’s also a site where beautiful street art can be appreciated by all manner of people, locals and tourists alike.
Needless to say, while it’s a public place, Hosier Lane is also a major tourist site.
The local council has a vested interest in protecting Hosier Lane as it contributes to the experience of many thousands of tourists visiting Melbourne each year.
The perception formed in the minds of those tourists is a critical factor in Melbourne continuing to benefit from tourism into the future.
I wonder how many of those people who tag great street art are capable of producing quality street art themselves?
I don’t know the answer, but I suspect many who tag aren’t particularly great artists.
Colorful street art, through the wire, in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Street Art in Vibrant La Boca
La Boca is an edgy tourist neighborhood in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
It’s a colorful and vibrant part of town with loads of opportunities for great street photography.
Just keep your eyes open, particularly if you’re toting a camera and traveling alone, as La Boca is also known for petty theft.
In fact, outside of the main tourist area, La Boca has the impression of being a pretty rough place, particularly after night falls.
That may not be the case, but I’ve heard lots of tales from other travelers about experiencing a slightly unfriendly vibe outside of the tourist zone.
I made this particular image not far away from the colorful tourist streets for which La Boca is most famous. It’s a simple enough image that introduces the notion of ambiguity.
Rather than trying to poke my camera’s lens through the wire, I decided to include the wire into the composition as a way of suggesting a barrier to freedom, a bit like what we feel when we see prison bars.
It’s a way of suggesting a difficult existence, possibly with limited opportunities to move beyond one’s environment or station in life.
Perhaps you see the image as being about two distinctly different worlds in that both you, as the viewer, and I, as the photographer, are looking into a world other than our own.
But it’s no secret garden now, is it. And they’ve been plenty of these worlds created over the years that have locked their citizens away, out of sight and, largely, out of time.
George Orwell’s frightening visions were, after all, based upon an actual society. Were they not?
I had a lot of fun exploring and photographing the La Boca tourist precinct at the end of a photography tour I co-ran to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula.
In fact some of my customers from the tour headed back to Buenos Aires to catch onward flights and, those of us with a few days up our sleeve, had a fantastic time exploring the vibrant city.
I had a particularly great time photographing the incredible La Recoleta Cemetery. It’s an amazing and very beautiful historic site I’d recommend to all enthusiast photographers.
If you’re interested in Buenos Aires I have a great post on street photography in the La Boca and San Telmo neighborhoods.
Alternatively, if you’re wanting a really detailed overview of what to expect in San Telmo, then I recommend you check out my post titled San Telmo Guide, Buenos Aires: History, Tango, Markets and Food.
Young woman and street art in inner city Melbourne, Australia.
Street Art as Backgrounds For Portraits
The above image was made, in the few seconds available to me, near the end of a private photography course I was running in inner city Melbourne.
At such events my job is to help others make photos but, on this occasion, I managed to make a few quick images at days end.
This photo allowed me to incorporate an element of street art into the background of this fashion based portrait.
It’s a pretty basic image and not the kind of photo I usually make.
However, I do love the light on the model’s face and the juxtaposition of her face and clothing with those of the three men depicted on the wall behind her.
The warm and cool color contrasts within the image are also quite striking.
Beautiful street art featuring an angel in Melbourne, Australia.
Angel Street Art in North Fitzroy, Melbourne
Whether it’s the concept of an angel or images of angels I’m a fan. In fact I think they’re glorious.
I was fortunate to discover this particular artwork on a wall outside the Brunswick Street Oval in North Fitzroy, an inner city suburb of Melbourne.
Perhaps what I like most about this image is the way the artist has imbued this mythical figure with a strong human presence.
That notion was very strong in my mind when I made the photo, in camera, and also while post processing of the image on the desktop.
When it comes to photographing street art I’m particularly drawn to faces, whether of actual people or representations of mythological figures.
I can appreciate the geometric patterns and colors in a lot of street art. However, I’m most drawn to the humanity explored in a beautifully painted face, whether that be on a canvas or an alley wall.
Actually, it’s true to say that I have a thing for photographing statues. So much so that I wrote a short, but interesting post, illustrated with lovely photos featuring statues of angles I’ve photographed around the world.
Street art on the iconic Brim silo mural in Brim, Victoria, Australia.
Photographing the Brim Silos: Street Art Murals
The Brim Silos site is located just out of the tiny town of Brim in the Wimmera region of Victoria. This beautifully crafted mural is famous throughout Australia.
I discovered this extraordinary art work, part of a large group of portraits, while exploring some of the regions towns on a long drive home from a gig I played in the town of Cowangie in the far west of Victoria.
My photo features a section of the larger work painted on these massive grain solos. I love the way the painted figures merge with the underlying texture of the grain solos.
The Human Condition is a major theme in my own photography. No wonder I love the street art mural featured on the Brim Silo so much.
Whether you’re out and about in the city or driving through a small country town I encourage you to do a bit of research and seek out local street art sites.
It’s just such a buzz to discover and photograph these often surprising and beautiful sites.
