As I browse through images on Flickr, I can always spot “an O’Malley” immediately. Among the hundreds of images of street art that I view every week, Joe’s stand apart as having a uniform, recognizable style. To me, he has become a brand. One of my favorite images by Joe is titled “Graffiti (Jim Vision), East Lo… Read more

As I browse through images on Flickr, I can always spot “an O’Malley” immediately. Among the hundreds of images of street art that I view every week, Joe’s stand apart as having a uniform, recognizable style. To me, he has become a brand. One of my favorite images by Joe is titled “Graffiti (Jim Vision), East London, England,” shot on February 3, 2016. It depicts a mural of a Native American on horseback, furiously charging through a burning oil field, himself aflame. The art is placed dead center in the frame, in the context of what appears to be a fairly ordinary neighborhood. In contrast to the colorful and violent artwork, the surrounding environment is calm and quiet and somewhat drab. Even so, there are elements along the edges of the image that echo the forms and colors in the mural. See how the stripes in the man’s flag are repeated not only behind the gate on the right but also in the street below? See how the graffiti on the left reflects the artist’s signature in the mural? I would argue that these are not just happy accidents. I believe that when Joe frames a shot or later crops it on his computer, he is aware on some level, either consciously or subconsciously, of such contrasts and complements. I believe that what attracts him to street art in the first place is how it inhabits the urban landscape, mutely commenting on it. What I find in Joe’s work is a tension between energy and calm, stillness and movement. His carefully composed images seem to hover in their frames. Although he sometimes includes a human figure or two for scale or interest, I think his best pictures are those that suggest a post-human world in which the art has somehow survived and is still silently crying out for attention. Joe honors the human impulse to make a mark on the world, even, as in the case of most street art, the mark may be erased or covered over all too soon. Something that strikes me about Joe’s work is its scope. There is so much variety in the art that he shows us. It’s all there--the good, the bad, and the ugly. He includes art that he doesn’t particularly like himself. This may be because he views himself as a documentarian whose mission is to record as much of the lively East London street art scene as he can. But he is more than that. I believe that “Graffiti (Jim Vision), East London, England” is not just the straightforward document of an artist’s work that it may appear to be. I believe that it is a work of genius made by a man who is an artist himself. And there are many more like it in his Flickr stream.