Graffiti

I've always had a fascination with graffiti ... I think it's really cool art. I love how it expreses the artists' personality and often feelings. I love how colorful it is. I love often how BIG it is. I love the creativity of much of it. Our current city has some really fantastic graffiti. I've been thinking for a while how I wanted to make a project of photographing various kinds of graffiti and once it started warming up, so did the project. It also got me wondering what the history of graffiti was ... and thus began "The Graffiti Project". 

Here are a few things I found out abou the history of graffiti:

"Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and it has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire. ... In modern times, paint, particularly spray paint, and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials. ... Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture, graffiti has evolved alongside hip hop music, b-boying, and other elements. Unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. ... Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures." (All this information & more can be found here & here)