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Scout keeps me company while I study *cough cough*
Actually if you look closely you will see I am not studying at all! xD
A view from Eagelsfield Park, Shooters Hill in Spring. The Queen Elizabeth bridge is in view along with Littlebrook power station. Behind are the cross Thames power pylons at Swanscombe, and Thurrock, the tallest in the UK. Along the horizon a little way Tilbury Power station, and further to the right the chimney of Kingsnorth power station at Hoo in Kent.
Disclaimer: I was asked to do a hard task. The grandmother pulled me aside and asked me to film some shots of the baby so they could make some necklaces to remember her. To have her photo, all dolled up. I am going to post some of them because I am proud to have had her in my life as long as I did. Some might find it "morbid" that I was asked to do this, or that I'm even posting shots of her and other random things from the day (a cross, the setup), but this is my way of coping. There is nothing bad about them really but I know some might not want to see her. Later as everyone was leaving Marla knew something was up because I was still there cleaning up with her mom and she said "You're going to take photos aren't you?". I told her yes that Anne Marie had asked me and as she went to hug me she said, I'd never want any other photographer on this entire earth to photograph my baby than my best friend, thank you and i love you". She walked out and that was that. There I sat all alone to photograph this angel. In my life I separate my art time from my pain and struggle it is my release. This was the first time I truly had my art and lens cause pain. I cried the entire time I was taking these photos. I've not stopped crying almost all day.
How the day went:
Stumbled to the phone stubbing my toe, I had finally fallen into an almost impermeable slubmer. Faces of angels and cries alike flowing through my lobes and I felt sullen. Sullen girl, still looking back and living in the now like you strive to. Running from now. I could not scope the gravity of my sadness. My daughter was everywhere, my best friend was in pain and there was energy from her angel to. Saying works in a foreign language to stop the pain in my toe I was told "The viewing/funeral is at 4-9pm today. I was also given the OK to come regardless of exposure more every single person had the chicken pox and from what we have gathered last night not two days from now is the last day of worry for exposure. My mom looked in her diary to when she first saw bumps appear to when the pain actually started. Maybe she said that but Marla and family said they didn't care if I was doused in them they wanted me there. My mom was in to much pain to go and very sick. Big man was left home with her to get her drinks and stuff when she needed. Only thing she had to do was get her own medicine.
Little man dressed in his best outfit, pressed khakis and a dress shirt, we got his hair cut yesterday (free woo!) and he looked sharp. I remember fixing the knot on his tie and thinking. One day I will do this for his wedding, fix his tie already done and he will say "AWW MAH STOP IT"S FINE" and smile large. Next to him I pictured a little girl dancing in a beautiful pink dress, bow tie in the back at her waist, a sun hat atop her head. And I perched my ear real big to try to hear the laughter that was not there. My heart was already breaking. In the car we go and on the way there I try to explain to him the severity of what he is about to see, feel, hear. How do you tell your child about these things without crying? I wiped tears and told him my heart was bursting with sadness and that I loved him. Tears welled up in his eyes as I spoke of the little angel departed. I told him to not be afraid of what he sees and while she might not look like a "normal" baby, normal is overrated and that she is a precious being. Beautiful no matter what. That he not say the words "I'm sorry the baby died, instead to say I'm sorry Ms. Marla and I love you". Pull into the LOVE funeral home; I see Marla's Expedition and grandpas car (her dads). For a while my brain wanted to believe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that I was making this all up in my head and I'd wake up soon. Seeing their cars made it real. It took me four tries to actually park the car right. Two tries to lock the car and one try to get little man out of his car seat. In order though, my brain was the one rattled.
Fifteen steps to the brass doors, and the violent red/green rug that just screamed funeral home. It took me to memories of the day we had my daughter's memorial, the day my grand mom died. The hushed dreary music flowing through the halls. Hallway was so long I wanted to run in the opposite direction no matter how hard it was to push my marshmallow feet to find the right room. Anne Marie (Marla's mom) walked out and gave me a huge hug, Marla was walking to the bathroom in the background and had not seen us yet. I asked how she was doing and she replied "I'm being the strong one, but Marla has not spoke a word to anyone". Little man hugged her tight and said he was sorry and loved her. Just like i said, and he meant it. She picked him up and walked him into another room and I went to find the bathroom. Turn the corner and Marla is sitting on a bench staring at a wall. For a split second she was me I was looking at and I was about 8 years younger than now. I knew that look. She saw me and ran right up to me gave me the biggest bear hug and burst into uncontrollable tears, I did to. We sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. My shoulder wet with tears and i told her I loved her and that I was happy she was alive and OK in that way. That I was there for her and to hold her and that no matter what I understood. That it hurt me to hear her cry and go through this, but I was there to go through this together. About five minutes later her mom came in a broke up our sobbing huggy mess so we could spend some time with the angel before others started to arrive. I went into the other room set up for friends to give them some time. Marla found me shortly afterward and escorted me to the front. She said as far as they were all concerned we ARE family and that I was to sit with them in the front the entire time.
Soon my eyes came upon a beautiful bassinet equipped with some small toys and a mobile with stars on them. A little pink hat on the middle. And there she lay. Honestly you are a bit afraid it is normal when you first see a corpse of any type. Natural reaction, it is also normal to fear what she might look like with all the abnormalities and such. Tiny fingers clutched around a rosary and to me she looked like an angel. Not a monster or a child who died due to numerous deformities of internal and external things. There laid a real life angel. One I will call my godchild still. I kneeled at the transportable alter in front of her and said my bit, not so much to god as the day my Paige died so did my religion, but more to her and Georgie. Georgie is Marla's brother who killed himself this past year. I told him and Paige and everyone to look over her. I do believe our love ones look over us once they passed. Went back to sit with Marla and hugged Greg and grandpa and grand mom (Anne Marie) held my hand. We all tried to talk of other things in the world but the stare Marla would get sometimes I knew she was thinking about everything that could have been different.
Pregnant friends and family came to the viewing and every one of them it was like Marla was shooting lasers. I couldn't be in the room with a pregnant woman for ages after I lost Paige. My mom and law was pregnant so it was a hard feet. Many people showed up about two hours after I got there. We talked and she told me the nightmare she dredged through the past few days. Told me she thought it best she went when she did because she didn't want her to be in pain, and that is the solace she has that her baby girl is not suffering. How the moment she passed in her fathers arms this look of peace came over her. We cried and cried and hugged and then BS'd and I made her laugh a little. Her finally talking about this, the first time she did she described all the gruesome details and in that moment i knew she is going to be OK soon. She is open about it, she's not running. She is devastated, who is not?
Her boys and little man where getting a bit out of hand so I opted to bring little man home, given my mom could watch him. I drove back here dropped him off after I set them up with a movie and some dinner. Went to drive back and as soon as I sat in the car torrential downpour. I drove anyway. Stuff flying past me there were some wicked winds, blurry eyes, tear-strewn face. I was a mess .By the time I got back I had enough time to hug her boys and they were off to play at a friends house to just get away.
I missed the sermon, that is Ok though I'm' not religious.
Then HIS family started to arrive some very respectful, one of them kept getting calls on her cell phone and I just saw Marla getting more and more pissed off. I marched right up to her (don't know what got in to me!) and told her to either shut it off or get the hell out of the building. She turned it off, and didn't say a word. Marla gave me a wink and a thank you on that one. Eventually we talked about the things she is going to hear "everyone is going to tell you, you can have another. Or that it was gods will, or that things happen for a reason. She said "nothing will ever make this right, I'll just have to learn to deal with it but there is no God-given or any type of true right of this wrong. I told her 8 years later I agree with her. I still can't shop for little girl outfits, my mom shopped for the baby shower. When I see a little girl I think looks like what Paige would have, i burst into tears.
No parent should bury his or her child.
We are so much alike and she told me she felt comfort in my being there because she knows I was there for her and that she could say and talk about anything with me, but mostly because she knows I have been right where she is. In so many words, that I really understood.
Everyone paid their respects, Marla finally had to leave because her feet and legs were so swollen she couldn't bend them! She delivered not so long ago and has been on her feet since pretty much, Greg and her waked up to the bassinet and lifted the hood back. At the same time they bent down and gave the baby a kiss on each cheek and I lost it I had to walk out of the room. They gathered some of the roses and random flowers that had been sent. One last goodbye I witnessed and then the discussion about the photography came in. Anne Marie stayed behind to get the rest of the other things and left me for the most part alone in this large room with the baby to shoot what I thought would look good on the necklace and just some photos for the family.
I was crying so hard I could barely turn on my camera but I did, for them. I was the last in the room with the baby; she is to be cremated tonight. I gave her a tiny kiss on her cheek and told her to kiss angel wings. That we all loved her even though she only stayed here on earth 23 and half hours. That we will all see her soon and that she is so loved more loved than any could imagine and that I was happy she wasn't in pain. To give Paige a hug from mommy.
Looked back over my shoulder while I was walking away trying to get out of my mind that it was the last and first time I had ever seen my goddaughter.
Slowly I shut the French doors behind me right after I took a final shot.
Fell out in the hallway and finally gathered myself up enough to drive back to Marla's'. Stayed a few minutes they put Marla to bed, drove home and here I am.
I'm a mess and in photo post, these were the hardest set of photos I have ever taken.
Today was beautiful and horrible and wonderful and sad, and closure.
Rest in Peace dear Angel, rest in peace.
Here we witness a small train coming out of a tunnel, about to pass an old fisherman.
Personally trains aren't my favorite thing to build, but I had fun making it.
With its en masse collection of skyscrapers that dominate the skyline on a long spine along the shores of Lake Michigan, it is no wonder that the two towers that provide a great birds-eye view of the downtown are quite famous.
The more famous one among those two is the WIllis Tower. At 1451 ft (442m) tall (without the spire), it literally towers above the rest of the buildings of downtown. Nothing even comes close to it. And standing on the Ledge, a small enclosed glass box that protrudes out 4 feet out into the sky is an ethereal experience. With what seems like nothing beneath you, the seemingly limitless view you get all around you is amazing.
But it does have its downsides - being so popular, it is extremely crowded and even on a good winter weekend, it takes the better part of an hour to get to the top. And however crowded it is, you will still have to endure a documentary about its construction...
Plus, for some reason, they have this inane desire to close down the skydeck at 8pm, which is just about when I get to start shooting. So I couldn't visit it during the night and instead headed to the Hancock observatory, 1027 ft (~329m) above the sea level atop a modest building called the John Hancock Tower.
It still provides a great view of the city, and while not the tallest one in the city, it still towers above the other buildings in its vicinity. Being right next to the Lake Michigan, it provides stunning views of the pristine blue waters of the unnaturally calm lake, including the famous North Avenue Beach and Oak Street Beach, which in summertime is a place to see and to be seen in.
WIth its very little crowd and late closing hours (it is open till 11pm), it was the defacto choice to head up there in the evening and shoot till the night. While admiring the view, I managed to capture some shots for sequences of timelapse videos and some nice long exposure shots of downtown and the vibrant shoreline.
Above is one shot of the Lake Shore Drive heading up north along the shores of Lake Michigan lined up with affluent residential condos which provide stunning views of the lake. This shot alone made me realize what a premier location this area was.
Do view it large on black.
Chicago
IL USA
My cousin Ellen (ellenmckennadesign.com) designed cousin Barb's house. Every window was placed specifically for the views. Awesome, Awesome!!!!!
A view of the Linville Gorge from an overlook along the Rock Jock Trail. The trail skirts along the west rim of the gorge and offers great views of the east rim.
... finally I got my hands on a wide angle lens :-) this is the first picture uploaded taken with my new tokina 11-16 ...
Thank you all!
3,000,000 views basically since November 2012 - where I started using my Flickr account for good...
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.
View from Parliament Hill in North London. The sight line to St Paul's Cathedral are a protected view.
We ate lunch below Panorama Point on Mt. Ranier. We were treated to views of the Tatoosh Range, Mt. St. Helens and Mr. Adams.
Teitl Cymraeg/Welsh title: Golygfeydd o Ddolgellau
Ffotograffydd/Photographer: Geoff Charles (1909-2002)
Dyddiad/Date: September 1, 1971
Cyfrwng/Medium: Negydd ffilm / Film negative
Cyfeiriad/Reference: (gcc41469)
Rhif cofnod / Record no.: 006200091
Rhagor o wybodaeth am gasgliad Geoff Charles yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
More information about the Geoff Charles Collection at the National Library of Wales
Mae ffotograffau Geoff Charles hefyd yn rhan o Broject Europeana Libraries
Geoff Charles' photographs also form part of the Europeana Libraries Project
Panorama taken with four iPhone camera shots (though Exif data won't display as it's been combined using the AutoStitch App). The view features St Paul's Cathedral, just right of centre, Blackfriars Bridge to the left, the Millennium Bridge which leads pedestrians from the Tate gallery across the Thames to St Paul's, and Southwark Bridge just in view on the right.
The high rise offices of the Square Mile, which is the City of London, seem to increase in number every time I take a photo of this view! I counted the number of cranes just in this shot, and there were 27, which testifies to the amount of construction going on.
Lake View Terrace is a middle-class suburban district of Los Angeles near the large Hansen Dam. Near the Verdugo Mountains the area is nearly rural, with farms and a large equestrian community. The area is said to be named for a now-dry Holiday Lake, which was a popular vacation area in the 1950s. Lake View Terrace however is most notoriously known as the site of the Rodney King beating that would lead to the massive 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
Los Angeles in the late 1980s and early 1990s was wealthy and prosperous, having received international acclaim for its recent successful 1984 Summer Olympics and with massive foreign investment coming in from Asia, most notably Japan. The city however was also fraught with tension. By the early 1990s, widespread unemployment, poverty and the rise of crack cocaine led to the rise of powerful street gangs in the city, especially in South Central Los Angeles. This was faced with the Los Angeles Police Department, a tough, widely-respected force led by Police Chief Daryl Gates, credited with developing SWAT. However the LAPD was also frequently accused of using excessive force and extremely heavy-handed tactics, including arresting some 25000 people under Operation Hammer, mostly without charge.
After the Korean Conflict, a large influx of Koreans moved to the Los Angeles area, where many of them opened small shops, often in poor areas dominated by African-Americans. Tensions quickly arose, as African-Americans resented the Korean-Americans, who they saw as taking money and getting rich off of their community ( Black Korea was an infamous song later accused of inciting violence).
Into this came Rodney King, a taxi driver previously convicted of armed robbery and having served a year in prison. Released on probation, on the morning of March 3, 1991, King was driving home with two friends after a night of drinking. Police officers noticed King speeding and pursued, the pursuit later reaching speeds of 185km/hr as King later confessed that he attempted to outrun the police to avoid a DUI charge that would violate his parole. After a massive chase involving several patrol cars and a helicopter, King was cornered near this intersection (directly behind me).
The King's friends were arrested (and they claimed attacked), while Rodney King remained in his car. He was then ordered out. At this point the LAPD took control of the situation, led by Sgt Stacey Koon, as well as officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano. The five LAPD officers swarmed and grabbed King, who resisted. He was then tasered twice, falling on the ground.
At this point, George Holliday began videotaping the incident from his apartment overlooking the site of the arrest. King got up and collided with Officer Powell, whether to attack or escape remains unclear. Holliday pulled out a baton and began beating Rodney King with it, knocking him to the ground. When King rose again, Sgt Koon ordered his officers to use "power strokes", repeatedly beating and then kicking the prone figure. King was then arrested and sent to the hospital. Rodney King was struck a total of 33 times, and kicked six, suffering fractured facial bones, a broken right ankle, and multiple bruises and lacerations.
George Holliday sent the 12-minute video to a local news channel, and it soon became widely viewed across the United States, infuriating the public, especially in the Los Angeles area where many had complained about excessive police brutality for years. Officers Koon, Powell, Briseno and Wind were charged with use of excessive force. Judge Stanley Weisberg was assigned after a previous judge was removed and controversially he decided to move the venue from Los Angeles County to the neighboring and far more conservative (and white) Ventura County. On April 29, 1992, to the shock and fury of many, the jury acquitted three of the four officers of excessive force and hung on the fourth.
There remain divided opinions about the decision. Some have claimed that the acquittals were based on the blurry initial three seconds of the video that show King running into Powell before the beating. Others claimed that the defense simply desensitized the jurors by repeatedly playing the video until it had lost its emotional impact. Many however darkly claimed that the jury, made up of 9 Caucasians, 1 biracial, 1 Latino, and 1 Asian (and no African-Americans), simply would not choose to convict white officers over an African-American.
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley held a press conference immediately after the verdict, stating:
"Today, the jury told the world that what we all saw with our own eyes was not a crime. My friends, I am here to tell the jury...what we saw was a crime. No, we will not tolerate the savage beating of our citizens by a few renegade cops.
...We must not endanger the reforms we have achieved by resorting to mindless acts. We must not push back progress by striking back blindly."
The spark was lit. In South Central, police arrested a suspect throwing rocks at a patrol car, only to retreat when a large, angry crowd gathered. The police were ordered out of the area, and the crowd began looting neighboring shops and attacking vehicles, pulling out people and beating them. Larry Tarvin was knocked unconscious before being helped by an unknown Samaritan to drive to safety. Soon after Reginald Denny, a white truck driver who had unknowingly driven into the area, was pulled from his truck and severely beaten by a mostly black crowd, which was broadcast live on television. Seeing the report led a local black Samaritan Bobby Green Jr. to run to the scene and drive Denny to safety. About an hour later Fidel Lopez, an immigrant, was attacked and tortured before the crowd was stopped by Rev. Bennie Newton, who told the rioters: "Kill him, and you have to kill me too."
Meanwhile Police Chief Gates, who had been called to resign but refused after the Rodney King verdict, went to a political fundraiser. In downtown Los Angeles a crowd attacked police officers and overturned cars and fired at firefighters trying to put out a blaze. Another crowd assembled here at the site of the beating, and rock throwing and firing occurred until the crowd was dispersed by riot tactics.
The next day the Los Angeles riots were all over the news, and horrified viewers watched as it appeared as if a major US city was tottering on the brink of chaos. Mayor Bradley signed a dusk to dawn curfew over the major areas of unrest, and California National Guard units began to move out.
At this point a second racial component arose, the poor relationships between the African-American and Korean-American communities reaching a boiling point. Thirteen days after the Rodney King beating, Latasha Harlins was killed following a dispute over a bottle of orange juice at a convenience store when Soon Ja Du, thinking that the teenager had stolen the drink, shot her in the head. Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter but only fined $500 and sentenced to five years of probation and 400 hours of community service, infuriating the African-American community. Now many in the angry crowds of looters began to specifically target Korean stores. Many of them veterans of the Korean Conflict and feeling abandoned by the LAPD which seemed to give more priority to protecting the rich areas like Beverly Hills, the Korean-American community converged on Koreatown and their stores, armed with weapons. Several public gun battles raged out between Korean shopkeepers and potential looters.
Finally, the police response began to organize as reinforcements converged on the city. Pres George Bush spoke out stating that "anarchy" would not be tolerated, while the Justice Department began federal investigation of the Rodney King beating as a civil rights violation. The next day, Rodney King himself had an impromptu conference asking "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?" Pres Bush invoked the Insurrection Act via Executive Order 12804, federalizing the California National Guard. By the end of day 4, some 13500 troops were in Los Angeles, and the riots began to die down. Some 30000 people marched through Koreatown, supporting merchants and racial healing.
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots finally ended on May 4, 1992. 63 people had been killed and over 2000 injured. 12000 were arrested. Over 3700 buildings had been destroyed, 2300 from Korean shops, causing over $1 billion in damages.
The LAPD was widely criticized from all quarters. It had exhibited police brutality in the Rodney King Beating, but had all but disappeared from much of the city during the actual riot. At best, it showed itself incompetent and unable to control the situation. At worse, many felt, it had acted out of spite to "punish" the city for its critiques. Having already resigned, Daryl Gates stepped down immediately in the aftermath of the riots. On April 17, 1993 two officers of the LAPD, Laurence Powell and Stacey Koon—were found guilty of Civil Rights violations, while officers Theodore Briseno and Timothy Wind were acquitted. While the city waited with bated breath over the results the decision passed peacefully. All four officers involved in the Rodney King beating have since left the LAPD.
Rodney King was never charged for the DUI that started the entire incident. He was awarded $3.8 million in damages from the City of Los Angeles, which he used to start a hip-hop label "Straight Alta-Pazz Records", that soon folded. King had several more-run ins with the law, though he generally tried to remain out of the spotlight. In 2012 Rodney King was found dead of an accidental drowning in the family pool, likely related to alcohol.
The Rodney King Beating and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots were major incidents in the history of Los Angeles, and gave the city a negative reputation that persists to this day, even as crime has dropped and demographics have changed. The controversies related to police brutality and law-and-order and policing policies also remain national issues.
Lakeview Terrace, Los Angeles, California
How about that....today my stream got to 100 000 views.....my my that's a whole bunch of them!
Guess I'm not doing too bad with my "Point and Shoot" camera! Managed to get there in just over 2 years. Blocked many freaks, Made many friends....A great thanks to all of you that have made this experience special.
Desert View Watchtower | Mary Colter | 1932
South Rim | Grand Canyon National Park | Arizona
All rights reserved. No use & distribution without express written permission. Strictly enforced.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - In the early afternoon, thunder rumbled around Black Mountain. I waited until it moved far enough away before I climbed the summit to the lookout tower. At the 9,500 foot summit, I found fresh sleet as the storm moved away.
The ABN AMRO tower in Zwolle is, with its 96 meters of height, the largest tower of the city. The unofficial name of the tower is "De IJsseltoren" ("The IJssel Tower", named after the IJssel river).
The tower offers a very unique view over the city. Unfortunately, it's closed for public.
But lucky me, someone could sneak me into the building. The office lights were very bright, so the reflections were too heavy to take real good long exposure shots. So I decided to take some short exposure handheld pics with ISO 1000 (sorry for the noise).
On the left you see my dear host Elias reflected in the window, taking a cup of coffee; in the background you see the city of Zwolle.