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June 18, 2018 - East of Lowell Nebraska US
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Mid to late June in Nebraska is... in my words... a photographic storm chaser's heaven when it comes to storms. Almost every afternoon through mid evening then into the overnight, north south east or west of Kearney Nebraska we have storms that you can see clearly for hundreds of miles in any direction. Of course not all at the same time but there is plenty of eye candy this time of year.
Putting some distance between myself, a good photogenic storm and a good camera lens...The skies Nebraska offers this time of the year are truly magical. Though, there are a lot of farms and telephone poles, but if you can find the right places, there is open fields, and excellent perspectives. You can capture something special. As for example, this evening...
Folks, you see that I'm not always about chasing the Tornado. When severe weather approaches. These Nebraska Skies, they talk to me... and I never miss a good conversation...
#ForeverChasing
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Love the shine on the wet sand, the contest between the golden sand and the darkness of the sea.
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Sometimes I´m just happy about photography with this analog stuff. Just to show the reason why.
6x17 back on Chamonix 045N-2, Provia 100F 120, 150mm Sironar W, Tango drumscanner
DublinBus (Donnybrook) SG229
This update starts in Co.Wicklow, but covers a selection of South Dublin routes!
Starting off here with DublinBus SG229, it is noted here in Enniskerry Village operating a 185 from Enniskerry to Bray. Enniskerry is a small, rural village in the Wicklow mountains just south of County Dublin, and is served by two bus routes- the 44 which serves Kiltiernan and Dundrum on its way into the city centre, before snaking northside up through Drumcondra to DCU, and the 185 to Bray.
The 185 is an interesting route, being operated by DublinBus yet not actually operating within either Dublin City or Dublin County. It is of further interest due to its timetable- it operates hourly from Enniskerry, with several different route and terminus variations in between. Additionally, it also has one of the latest departure times on the network- most final buses leave their terminus' at 2330, a 185 leaves Enniskerry at 2345. The only other later example that comes to mind is the 0020 departure of the 65 from Blessington on the weekends, but no doubt there are some others!
SG229 is noted here in Enniskerry operating the 0915 185 exShopRiver. The 44 terminates where I was standing, and offers a very scenic backdrop. A photo was not possible on this day however due to a van blocking the front of the bus, so I decided to leave that photo for another day. I will however return to the 44 later in this update and in the next.
Vehicle Information:
Volvo B5TL
Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini Mk.III
162-D-15185
H67F
Vehicle History:
New to DublinBus in 2016
Vehicle Location:
Enniskerry Village, Co. Wicklow
Enniskerry - 02.12.2016
Copyright © Mark Long 2016
This city in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga, is often referred to as the "birthplace of the Portuguese nationality" or "the cradle city" because it is widely believed that Portugal's first King, Afonso Henriques (1109-85), was born here and the Battle of São Mamede, the seminal battle in the foundation of Portugal, took place near here.
Hence Guimaraes is very popular with Portuguese tourists, less foreign tourists to be found here.
Founded in the 4th century, Guimarães became the first capital of Portugal in the 12th century.
Its historic town center is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement into a modern town", with many interesting houses and squares. and two castles on a hill,I n Europe.
On your way to the castle at the top, you will find a palace, a 15th century monument in which it is possible to see the influence of French seigneurial architecture, the Monument to King Afonso Henriques, the Romanesque Chapel of S. Miguel and finally the castle itself, which dates back to the 10th century.
Guimaraes lies along the Portuguese Camino route to Santiago. Saint James is believed to have visited here.
A Wool Church, so called as it was built from the riches of the wool trade, which was at its height in the 15th Century. Lavenham is a fine example.
HWW!
HMS Example, one of a number of Archer class patrol boats doing a Scottish tour. These vessels are assigned to universities around the country and used as training ships for those interested in a career at sea.
Another fine example of colonial architecture, this time in Mariana, a few miles away from Ouro Preto. This is the church of "Nossa Senhora do Carmo".
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Otro bello ejemplo de arquitectura colonial, esta vez en Mariana, muy cerca de Ouro Preto. Esta es la iglesia de "Nossa Senhora do Carmo".
***NO INVITES, PLEASE / NO QUIERO INVITACIONES, GRACIAS***
A tree on Coochiemudlo Island in Moreton Bay, QLD, Australia.
Canon 5D Mk III with Canon EF 200mm F2.8L Mk II lens. 1/200th sec at F4, ISO 1600. Processed with Photoshop Elements 12.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I need your help to get a question answered about scanning old analogue slide film.
I still have a suitcase full of slides. The ones I'd like to keep are from about 1986-1988 onwards, so they are at the most 28 years old. They have long been stored in a bedroom cupboard, but seem in reasonable shape for their age.
Still, I would like to see them scanned. My main purpose is to preserve the images I made in places like China, Indonesia, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire. I do not think they have great artistic or historical value, but I want to be able to look at them when I am old myself. For a start, I want to collect them in a few Blurb books. I may like some pictures enough to have them enlarged and hang them on the wall.
Obviously, drumscans would be best, but I would not know if that still makes sense given the current quality of the slides. It is also prohibitively expensive for the volume that I have. I may want to do this for the few images that I especially like and may want to enlarge at a later stage. For the mass of slides I need to find a cheaper solution.
So I found a local gentleman who scans negatives and slides professionally. This was one of the scans he made to check the quality. It was made with a Minolta 5400, but he also has a Braun PS5000 scanner, which should lead to an equivalent quality.
What would you advise me to do? Would you consider having this quality of a scanner given the purpose that I have with these pictures? What do you think of the scan quality? Are there much better machines that are cheaper than drumscans (this gentleman also had various Nikon scanners, but he had technical problems with all of them).
I was told that this would lead to scans that could be printed to a format of A4 format (21 * 29.7 cm or 8.3 * 11.7 inch). When I view this on my computer screen, I think the grain allows a larger format, although sometimes the dynamic range may be a bit low. This photo may not be the best example, since the three people seem not completely sharp, in contrast to the flags and billboard.
All your remarks and comments count. Thank you in advance for your help!
Cool rocks that feel soapy smooth. Ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chert
The stone to the right is probably:
Cloverly and Morrison Formations (N,S) or Cloverly Formation, Inyan Kara Group, and Morrison Formation (Phanerozoic | Mesozoic | Jurassic-Late Cretaceous-Early) at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
CLOVERLY FORMATION and MORRISON FORMATION. CLOVERLY FORMATION--Rusty sandstone at top, underlain by brightly variegated bentonitic claystone; chert-pebble conglomerate locally at base. MORRISON FORMATION--Dully variegated claystone, nodular limestone, and gray silty sandstone. In southern Yellowstone and Jackson Hole areas the presence of Morrison is questionable; CLOVERLY FORMATION (Hartville uplift) or INYAN KARA GROUP (Black Hills) and MORRISON FORMATION. CLOVERLY FORMATION--Rusty to light-gray sandstone containing lenticular chert-pebble conglomerate interbedded with variegated bentonitic claystone. INYAN KARA GROUP--Rusty to light-gray sandstone containing lenticular chert-pebble conglomerate interbedded with variegated bentonitic claystone. Includes Fall River and Lakota Formations. MORRISON FORMATION, in northeast Wyoming, dully variegated siliceous claystone, nodular white limestone, and gray silty sandstone.
Lithology: sandstone; claystone; conglomerate; limestone
A striking example of modern organic architecture, this building's fluid lines and curved balconies create a sense of movement and harmony. The monochrome palette enhances its sculptural elegance, emphasizing contrast and form.
HMS Example (P165)
HMS Example is an Archer Class patrol vessel based at HMS Calliope in Gateshead. River Tyne
Chassis n° SCFCV81V8JTL12611
Bonhams
Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris
The Grand Palais Éphémère
Place Joffre
Parijs - Paris
Frankrijk - France
February 2023
Estimated : € 200.000 - 300.000
Sold for € 391.000
"People who buy the Vantage will do so in the first place for its performance, and they will not be disappointed. The figures speak for themselves. But they should take extra heart because it is one of the easiest true high performance cars to drive well: and it has been given brakes to match. In comfort too, it has much to offer, and there is a great deal of what is best in the British tradition of designing and building sports cars in its making." - Autocar.
The performance figures Autocar referred to were a 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds and an estimated top speed of 170mph, figures comparable with those achievable by a Ferrari Daytona or Lamborghini Miura.
With the introduction of the Vantage in 1977, Aston Martin's V8 was thrust back into the supercar league. Its superior performance aside, the Vantage was readily distinguishable from the standard product by virtue of its blocked-off bonnet scoop, blanked air intake, front chin spoiler and lip on the boot lid.
ZF five-speed manual transmission was standard equipment, though a handful of Vantages were built with the Torqueflite automatic gearbox. With either transmission performance was shattering, the Vantage's 0-100mph time of 12.7 seconds making it the world's fastest accelerating production car at that time. For those with a yen for even greater performance, there was the factory's optional 'X-Pack' engine (like this example's) which, depending on the state of tune, had up to 432bhp available.
As the Vantage's mechanical specification progressed so did the coachwork, with wheel arches flaring to accommodate wider rims, increasing the overall width by 2", and 16"-diameter wheels being introduced. Unlike the V8 saloon, which reverted to fuel injection in 1986, the V8 Vantage kept its 48IDF Weber carburettors to the end of production in December 1989, by which time 361 cars had been built.
Copy documents on file reveal that this particular Vantage was built to West German specification and delivered via Merz & Pabst. The car was finished in Salisbury Blue with grey leather interior; unusually, the specified dark blue piping was applied to the front seats and armrests only, the rest of the piping being grey. Other 'extras' consisted of dash top roll and steering wheel in dark blue, rear valance in body colour and a Blaupunkt Bremen radio cassette player. The Vantage subsequently moved to the UK where it was first registered on 1st August 1998 as 'E149 BKM'.
The current vendor purchased the Aston from The Old Racing Car Company of Richmond-on-Thames, UK on 28th June 2008, since when it has been kept in storage. Re-commissioning will be required before the car returns to the road.
Lightbox with a white background paper.
Manual exposure mode.
Spot metering mode.
Rest of metadata in EXIF
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He utilizado una caja de luz que me autoregale las pasadas navidades.
Modo de medicion puntual y enfoque manual
The church of Negrentino, originally dedicated to S. Ambrogio Vecchio (today in S. Carlo), is one of the most remarkable ones in Ticino. The blissful location, the Romanesque architecture and rich artistic decorations are what make it so unique. Surrounded by fields at an altitude of 850 meters, isolated and facing a cliff that opens onto a vast panorama, this example of Ticino's Romanesque and Lombard architecture preserves a timeless charm. Visiting Negrentino also offers the occasion for a first introduction to the Blenio Valley, nicknamed the valle del sole (Valley of the Sun).
The visit
The gracious church is accessible on foot in a few minutes from Leontica by crossing a modern gangway (recently installed to ease access to this important monument). The keys to access this place of worship are available at the village's tavern (osteria).
The building, built in the 11th century and mentioned for the first time in 1224, is located on the ancient transit route of the Nara Pass which connects two valleys: Blenio and Leventina. The bell tower, detached from the main body of the church, is probably from the following century.
The pictorial decorations cover most of the internal walls and can be attributed to three different eras. The extraordinary fresco located in the counter-facade of the main apses should be original to the church: it represents the Christ in the centre of a game of concentric circles symbolizing the universe that offers him a crown of thorns. Behind him, the tools of the Passion (spear and stick). On either side, the Apostles. Above, a Greek fret interrupted by two lambs and a marine animal. Below, a shoot. A very singular composition that is interpreted as either the Resurrection, the Ascension or the Universal Judgment. The color tones are delicate. The prevailing ones are aqua, okra and brick red. As a whole, it is considered an outstanding fresco with apparent Byzantine influence. The date of work is uncertain (1010-1100) but it is most certainly one of Ticino's most ancient and is often studied by researchers of the great Romanesque paintings of Northern Italy.
The other paintings in the oldest part of the church are works of the Seregnesi, active fresco painters in Ticino and in the Grisons after mid-1400s. Depicted in the main apse are classic themes of medieval churches: Christ in ‘vesica piscis’, the Four Evangelists, the Apostles. In the lower part, curtains conceal the original decoration evoked by the emerging dragon's head. On both sides, Santo Stefano and Santa Caterina. Illustrated below the arch are the King and the Prophets and in the triumphal arch, the Annunciation. Votive paintings decorate the Northern walls including Sant'Ambrogio, a Virgin Mary in a throne, a second Virgin Mary between Saint Anthony the Abbot and San Bernardino and a Crucifixion.
Another prolific workshop worked in Negrentino: around 1510 Antonio da Tradate and his aides frescoed the minor apse and the walls of the second aisle. The main thread of the apse paintings is the Life of the Virgin, developed around the central fresco depicting "Mary's Coronation". In the dividing arches, the "Assumption of the Virgin" assisted by the Apostles and musician angels. Under the arches, Prophets and Saint Anthony the Abbot.
Painted on the counter-facade is a scene of Miracle of Parabiagio: Sant'Ambrogio on a horse appears to the Milanese during the battle (1339) to support them. On the sides are illustrated Saints Gervasio and Protasio, two martyr brothers from the first centuries of Christianity.
On the Southern wall, other votive paintings can be admired.
Endless wasteland
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California-Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the lower 48 states, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. Approximately 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European-Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.
The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.
In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association.
There are two major valleys in the park, Death Valley and Panamint Valley. Both of these valleys were formed within the last few million years and both are bounded by north–south-trending mountain ranges. These and adjacent valleys follow the general trend of Basin and Range topography with one modification: there are parallel strike-slip faults that perpendicularly bound the central extent of Death Valley. The result of this shearing action is additional extension in the central part of Death Valley which causes a slight widening and more subsidence there.
Uplift of surrounding mountain ranges and subsidence of the valley floor are both occurring. The uplift on the Black Mountains is so fast that the alluvial fans (fan-shaped deposits at the mouth of canyons) there are small and steep compared to the huge alluvial fans coming off the Panamint Range. Fast uplift of a mountain range in an arid environment often does not allow its canyons enough time to cut a classic V-shape all the way down to the stream bed. Instead, a V-shape ends at a slot canyon halfway down, forming a 'wine glass canyon.' Sediment is deposited on a small and steep alluvial fan.
At 282 feet (86 m) below sea level at its lowest point, Badwater Basin on Death Valley's floor is the second-lowest depression in the Western Hemisphere (behind Laguna del Carbón in Argentina), while Mount Whitney, only 85 miles (137 km) to the west, rises to 14,505 feet (4,421 m). This topographic relief is the greatest elevation gradient in the contiguous United States and is the terminus point of the Great Basin's southwestern drainage. Although the extreme lack of water in the Great Basin makes this distinction of little current practical use, it does mean that in wetter times the lake that once filled Death Valley (Lake Manly) was the last stop for water flowing in the region, meaning the water there was saturated in dissolved materials. Thus the salt pans in Death Valley are among the largest in the world and are rich in minerals, such as borax and various salts and hydrates. The largest salt pan in the park extends 40 miles (64 km) from the Ashford Mill Site to the Salt Creek Hills, covering some 200 square miles (520 km2) of the valley floor. The best known playa in the park is the Racetrack, known for its moving rocks.
Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North America due to its lack of surface water and low relief. It is so frequently the hottest spot in the United States that many tabulations of the highest daily temperatures in the country omit Death Valley as a matter of course.
On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Greenland Ranch (now Furnace Creek) in Death Valley. This temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth. (A report of a temperature of 58 °C (136.4 °F) recorded in Libya in 1922 was later determined to be inaccurate.) Daily summer temperatures of 120 °F (49 °C) or greater are common, as well as below freezing nightly temperatures in the winter. July is the hottest month, with an average high of 115 °F (46 °C) and an average low of 88 °F (31 °C). December is the coldest month, with an average high of 65 °F (18 °C) and an average low of 39 °F (4 °C). The record low is 15 °F (−9.4 °C).
(Wikipedia)
Der Death-Valley-Nationalpark (Tal des Todes) liegt in der Mojave-Wüste und ist der trockenste Nationalpark in den USA. Er liegt südöstlich der Sierra Nevada, zum größten Teil auf dem Gebiet Kaliforniens und zu einem kleineren Teil in Nevada. Die Region ist ein Hitzepol.
Der tiefste Punkt des Tales liegt 85,95 Meter unter dem Meeresspiegel. Es gibt zwei Haupttäler innerhalb des Parks, das Death Valley und das Panamint Valley. Beide Täler sind wenige Millionen Jahre alt. Das Death Valley ist von mehreren Gebirgen umschlossen, die höchste Gebirgskette bildet die Panamint Range mit dem 3366 m hohen Telescope Peak. 1933 wurde das Death Valley zum National Monument ernannt. 1994 wurde es, stark erweitert, zum Nationalpark aufgewertet. Eine kleine Enklave, Devils Hole weiter östlich in Nevada in der Nähe des Ash Meadows National Wildlife Preserve gelegen, gehört ebenfalls zum Park.
Am 20. Februar 2011 wurde der Nationalpark als Lichtschutzgebiet von der International Dark Sky Association auch als International Dark Sky Park (IDSP, in Gold) anerkannt, und nennt sich seither auch Death Valley International Dark Sky Park. Es ist das weitaus größte solche Schutzgebiet der USA und das zweitgrößte weltweit (nach dem IDSR Wood Buffalo in Kanada).
Das Tal erhielt seinen Namen, nachdem 1849 zwei Gruppen von Reisenden mit insgesamt etwa 100 Wagen eine Abkürzung des Old Spanish Trail suchten und dabei in das Tal gerieten. Nachdem sie wochenlang keinen Ausweg aus dem Tal gefunden hatten und bereits gezwungen waren, mehrere ihrer Ochsen zu verspeisen (wobei sie das Holz ihrer Wagen als Brennholz verwendeten), ließen sie ihre restlichen Wagen zurück und verließen das Tal über den Wingate Pass. Dabei drehte sich eine der Frauen aus der Gruppe um und rief dem Tal ein „Goodbye, Death Valley“ hinterher.
Trotz einer weitverbreiteten Legende soll niemand aus der Gruppe bei der Taldurchquerung umgekommen sein, bis auf einen Greis namens Culverwell, der schon beim Betreten des Tales sterbensmatt gewesen war. Als Teilnehmer der Reisegruppe beschrieb William Lewis Manly in seinem autobiographischen Werk Death Valley in ’49 die Begebenheiten.
Obwohl das Tal des Todes nur wenige hundert Kilometer vom Pazifischen Ozean entfernt liegt, ist es eine der trockensten Gegenden der Erde. Dies liegt daran, dass sich die feuchten Winde auf ihrem Weg vom Pazifik an fünf Bergrücken abregnen, bevor sie über das Gebiet des Parks ziehen können. Das Death Valley ist außerdem eine der heißesten Gegenden Amerikas. Am 10. Juli 1913 wurde bei Greenland Ranch (heute bekannt als Furnace Creek Ranch) vom National Weather Service eine Temperatur von 56,7 °C (134 °F) gemessen. Am 12. Juli 2012 wurde im Death Valley mit 41,7 °C (107 °F) die wärmste nächtliche Tiefsttemperatur gemessen; der gleiche Wert wurde vorher nur einmal erreicht, nämlich am 27. Juni 2012 am Khasab-Flughafen in Oman.
(Wikipedia)
Photo taken on Oudeschans (canal and street) at intersection with Oostersekade street while on a canal excursion..
A striking example of Budapest's eclectic architecture peeks through the summer foliage in this peaceful city scene. The green domes and ornate spires hint at the city’s Austro-Hungarian heritage, standing proudly behind a frame of lush trees and blue skies. A perfect blend of nature and history captured in the heart of Hungary's capital.
Adobe has given permission to share images I have processed with Photoshop CS5 Beta release test software. I can not discuss the details or features. I will let the image say it all! Check out the LARGER Size:
www.flickr.com/photos/howardignatius/4484187525/sizes/o/
Adobe also encourages comments, good or bad.
Lovely example of the magic of language. Made me smile when I came across this shop, so had to take it and include in the album.
Example of any given week. I've started to insert to do sheets in the middle of weeks that are especially crazy.
An example of the exquisite carved stone art work and figures
that fill the temple.
Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging programme to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings.
Examples of Syrian "bird head" Goddess terracotta figures from early dates around the late neolithic to early bronze age bridge, so from between polished stone and early ages of metal and a wide date range of 5200 to 3500 ybp seems safe (as indicated in this display behind glass from the Museum of Agen).
When 3D images are created, there can be limitations that can effect the final lines, for example, when making a mask from tree-cork, the mask has a chunky feel, and when making a doll from woven grass, the result is soft edged. With clay, there is no limitation as both hard and soft, broad-stroke and detailed effects are available for impression. Little in the medium of clay can get in the way of an artist's imagination. These 'bird idols' results look to be neither realist depiction or schematic abstraction, and it is perhaps the case that these clay models reproduced cultural decorations that appeared outside of the artist. I shall call these "indirect gestation images".
Every year there are harvest festivals where the very best decorative breads are assembled aside bowls of fruit and garlands and other detailed weaves of natural expression. Often the individual elements are brought together into a display, and often the display can include strange but joyfully understandable human forms (see varied deep rural traditions), not the forms of small portable corn-dollies, but large Arcimboldoesque centre displays that include best fruits (and thus seeds), best food transformation skills (for example breads) and best craft skills (baskets, woven garland and pots) - in effect an assembled personification of a fecund community, mixing nature's talents with human talents. The anthropomorphic form is assembled from bowls, garlands and shapes in a way that would phase up into our historical hierarchy via some of our kitch rococos. Perhaps these small portable terracotta idols replicated important ancient harvest personifications, or, as mentioned in an associated post (below), perhaps they describe in miniature the assembled ornamental scene around an urn field or sepulture that is active during the period of a funeral. So diverse are the idols, that perhaps some were for ancestors and funerals and others for harvest and fecundity, and that today we mix them all together like a car-boot box with its mix of classical music and 'Top of the Pops'. With this hypothesis none of the idols would be bird inspired and the pyramidal central shapes would be measured aside other essential abstracted forms that held focus of a face - perhaps each identifying the shapes specific to ancient clans or speciality groups within new sedentary 'urban' conglomorates: pyramids, curves and points.
Despite cultural norms for snowmen there are several repeated conventions. Snowmen are defined by how balls of snow compact together. Now, today's snowmen are ephemeral asides to a year's chapters - a little bit of carnavalesque for children and families during blankets of snow. Were the snowmen to have been highly important icons of harvest fertility or remembrance ancestors then perhaps we may have created smaller terracotta icons that resembled their temporal apex. Obviously this is a thought-experiment and snow could not easily adapt for such an important cultural role, but as a thought-experiment it may help visualise the idea.
Similarities can be seen here with a hypothesis I put forward to explain the language of lines found in the Rouergat group of statue menhirs. Although there are over 3000km between the two areas (Syria and Aveyron/Tarn) they are both from a similar sheer of chronology - in through sedentary agriculture and out to reproduced metals. I proposed that many 'naked' blank standing stones had been decorated with a mix of garland, rope and ceramic additions to procure vivid images of ancestral giants (Cham des Bondons) and that the statue menhirs 'memorised' these forms and lines, remembering this 'craft designated visual style' in carved stone, once again producing 'indirect gestation images' that are neither pure schematic or natural description (as the natural description is of a semi abstract original). With both examples we may be seeing a desire to make a record of strong and yet inherently ephemeral cultural artefacts, and in so doing recording past traditions with new techniques. If this is the case, then the 'bird idols and the Rouergat statue menhirs both offer a glimpse into a deeper past, as much as a fixed chronological episode, and some of the slightly barren megalithic reproductions afforded in many of today's visualisations may lack expression, idiosyncrasy and local structure and ornament.
As might be expected there is some evidence of refinement of these idol forms over time, with the original jumbly 'bird Goddesses' perfecting and even 'humanising' or "schematizing' into, for example, potential 'Astarte' forms - still retaining some of the original language, but easing it from its enthusiastically pastoral past of assembly into an indubitable deity for more urban hierarchical descriptions of the later ages of metal.
AJM 22.05.20
a woman dreamed of seeing a white rowboat by a quiet lake. in waking life, she was frustrated with how long and difficult it was to leave her husband.
A shame these later ones seem to be one colour as opposed to the two tone earlier examples often came in. It's getting to the stage now where any Daihatsu seen is an event in itself.
Fingal Head boasts some of the most spectacular examples of columnar jointing to be found in the whole of NSW. The name "Fingal Head" is actually derived from a fabled Scottish hero who was involved in the folk story surrounding the creation of Fingal Cave in Scotland and the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The local indigenous Goodjingburra clan's name for Fingal Head is Booninybah - Home of the Giant Echidna: "Booniny" means Giant Echidna. The spectacular columns of Fingal Head resemble the spines of an echidna, and so the Goodjingburra believe that the spirit of the echidna inhabits the headland.
Geology
The columnar basalt lava flow at Fingal Head extends underwater to Cook Island (named after Lieutenant James Cook who explored the east coast of Australia in 1770). The lava is thought to have come from the prehistoric Tweed Volcano and is known as "Lismore Basalt"; predominantly tholeiitic with occasional alkaline types. This unit is stratigraphically equivalent to the Beechmount Basalt in Queensland.
The jointing, clearly evident at Fingal Head is caused by contraction: as lava cools from the outside toward the centre, shrinkage cracks develop, usually forming hexagonal patterns (the shape of the columns is attributed to tensional stress). These columns are vertical because the lava cools from top to bottom when the flow of lava is horizontal.As always, thanks for any comments, views or favorites, they are much appreciated!
Copyright © Paul Hollins. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my explicit written permission.
This little example shows a phenomenon that I haven't really experienced before (photographically). The snow, or rather, the sleet, was being driven by a strong wind onto the window and, as the ice particles formed, they were sliding down the window to form an 'organic' ice mountain. It was forever on the move ... I took the liberty of applying a golden hue, purely for emphasis ...
For all those swamp enthusiasts out there <3 - Small update to verdant is up! www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60220/?
These are examples of the original 26 bogie cars (61 to 87) built from 1913 either by Les Ateliers de Construction du Nord de la France or La Croyère works of Franco Belge for the Cairo to Heliopolis Electric Railway. Kinki Sharyo trams from Japan were introduced in 1962, gradually displacing these earlier cars to the local routes in Heliopolis. They were finally withdrawn by the late 1970s
Beautiful example of Julio-Claudian fresco depicting a lush garden. The picture was discovered in the dinner room - “triclinium” - of the House of the Golden Bracelet in Pompeii. The fresco is organized in pictorial bands. The first band, in the lower part, represents a black base decorated with floral elements (iris and other plants). A grate rests above it; some windows with different geometric shapes (rectangles, lozenges and others) open on its surface. The representation of the garden occupies the median band of the fresco. Branches and leaves stand out against the blue background of the sky. The garden appears as seen through a large window framed by two slender corner pillars; its naturalistic representation allows us to distinguish various types of plants, flowers and bird species. A fountain with gushing water and two herms supporting monochrome panels decorated with mythological subjects enrich the garden. The panels show Dionysiac themes: Ariadne and sleeping Maenads
To left statue of Venus “Callipyge” (mid-2nd century DC - Naples, National Archaeological Museum); to right Eros with arch (copy; 1st century AD - Venice, National Archaeological Museum)
Source Exhibition notice
Fresco From Pompeii, “The House of the Golden Bracelet”
Approx. H. 292 cm x L. 370 cm
Late I century DC – 1st half I century AD, (3rd style)
Pompeii, Archaeological park
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.