![]() ![]() Bubble Letters - Type of graffiti letters, usually considered to be an older and sometimes out-dated style.Examples of payment for losing include paint, pot, a punch in the face, or the losing crew has to stop writing their name. Two forms of battle are skills or getting up, or quality versus quantity. Spray painted phrases and sticker collages aren’t treated with regard on other Baltimore streets - but they live on in Swickard’s archives. There, graffiti is intentionally left on display, as artists take turns designing the walls. is wonderful, because at least the people that want to do graffiti have a place to go and do graffiti, and not end up with a criminal record,” said Rosenfeld, noting that an informal understanding was reached with city officials years ago. In Baltimore, Rosenfeld founded the nonprofit Rosenfeld Org to preserve Graffiti Alley. Works by street artist Banksy have sold for millions of dollars. Rosenfeld said he’s seen graffiti-style artwork at the annual Art Basel show in Miami Beach, Florida, and in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, known for its murals. The illicit form of expression has inspired and been integrated into the more formal art world for a while now, according to Luis Rosenfeld, a street artist who owns Graffiti Warehouse, a studio and gathering space that backs up on Graffiti Alley in Station North. (Another book about Baltimore graffiti by a different author, featuring photos taken between 20, was published in 2016.)īut Webb said she believes that Swickard’s books also would appeal to Baltimoreans. Swickard doesn’t have plans to sell his books more widely. “It’s really cool seeing what the city looked like before I was here,” said Webb, 21, who moved to Baltimore about two years ago after having lived in different parts of Maryland and West Virginia.īaby’s On Fire, a Mount Vernon coffee shop where Swickard also worked on his books, has a copy of Volume 50 on display, he said. When he brought in Volume 1 and Volume 27 of his photo books, Webb said she bought them for $20 each. Swickard frequented the bar, Webb said, and eventually the two struck up a conversation about his project. Swickard has printed some of the books via Barnes & Noble Press, a self-publishing service, and sold two volumes to Bobbie Webb, who works at The Brewer’s Art in Mount Vernon. Two index volumes - more than twice the length of the photo zines - contain all of the captions, arranged chronologically in one and alphabetically in the other. DPW did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The department calls graffiti a “major problem” in Baltimore. ![]() According to its website, the Baltimore City Department of Public Works removes graffiti from city-owned and private residential properties, but not commercial properties or privately owned businesses. In April, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott launched a 90-day cleanup initiative that included a goal of removing 900 graffiti tags. “I really didn’t want people using my photos to try to make Baltimore look bad.” “I was always worried how they would be contextualized outside of my project,” Swickard said of the images he created. Swickard’s photos are mostly devoid of people, though when he came across someone actively tagging a surface with spray paint, he’d explain that he had no intention of reporting their activity. In other Flickr albums, the rise of e-scooters from companies like Bird and Lime is evident. Some of Swickard’s photos were included in an archive project documenting the tumultuous aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore. “Photo archives are just incredible wealth of knowledge,” said Cotton, 43, noting that in the case of Swickard’s project, he’s telling “the story of living in Baltimore.” “And I remember Patrick calling me and telling me that he had walked into a bookstore, and all of a sudden, all these keywords were popping up for him” - almost like comic strip speech bubbles or captions describing the scene he was observing, she explained.Īs Swickard chipped away at his own project, he sent Cotton photos of his Baltimore sightings via text, email and social media, she said. ![]() “When he started working for me, I really cautioned him … because kind of changed how you looked at things,” said Sara Cotton, who hired Swickard. Swickard’s not a professional photographer, but he was familiar with metadata, the information attached to photos that details where and when they were taken, by whom and what they depict.Ī job working with metadata at a commercial stock and art photography company in Madison, Wisconsin, forced him to think about how words and visuals could be interwoven. Patrick Swickard holds two of the books he produced containing words and images of street graffiti, tags, posters and other temporary markings he has captured with a point-and-shoot camera. ![]()
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