It’s been hard to articulate why I love photographing street art so much, and last week I figured it out. I am a landscape photographer by nature, by blood. My “claim to fame” is that my grandfather studied under the infamous Ansel Adams back in the 1960s while practising medicine. I grew up around museum-quality photos of northern California and my grandparent’s travels around the world. While they passed many years before my own interest in photography fully developed, I’ve realized recently how his perspective shows up consistently in my photos always.
From that lens, street art is the landscape that tells the story of my surroundings –whether it’s where I live or where I travel -– not entirely unlike the way picturesque hillsides or an ocean view would. At its best, it comes from artists who reside in the area, have a message to share and a community to reflect.
Artist: gatsptv — This is a piece about the 1989 earthquake that devastated Oakland on this particular road. It used to be a major freeway, and now is Mandela Parkway. There is careful intention to have Oakland-based artists contribute work here. Check out his work on Instagram: @gatsptv
As a resident of San Francisco for 10 years and now Oakland for the last two; I have become enamoured with capturing the street art that surrounds and tells the story of the neighborhoods. As the Bay area is gentrifying rapidly, there is palpable evidence that the art telling the history of the diverse cultures here is being lost in exchange for new condos and developments.
And, I realize that as a photographer (and relatively new resident to Oakland) I am very much a tourist as I document and perceive what these pieces mean not only to the artists but to the communities that house them. In an effort to learn more, I’ve been reaching out to more of the street artists themselves to gain their perspective on their inspiration in Oakland in particular.
This face is Math’s signature style that can be found all over Oakland. It sits next to the infamous East Bay Rats Motorcycle Clubhouse on San Pablo Blvd. His instagram: @math_never
In a conversation with the artist Vogue_TDK who has been painting in Oakland for over 30 years; I learned how what has always been an underground, illegal and appropriately labeled field of “graffiti art” has now transformed in the internet-age to a more marketable and internationally recognized “street art” for the masses. He described the way it used to work: a highly dangerous and illegal practice, and artists had to trade literal photographs to find out what other artists were doing and who they were. He shared how Oakland was a blank canvas and the art was done by the mostly African American, Latino, and Philipino crews who formed from the respective communities around town; and how that is less and less the case now.
Artist: Vogue_TDK — Also on Mandela Parkway in tribute to the 1989 earthquake.
My favorite parts of his stories were those of how his TDK crew has grown and evolved over the years. With 30-40 artists who have been apart of the group (about 15 actively painting now), they operate very much like a family where the artists are all uncles and aunties to each others kids now complete with annual BBQs and gatherings. And while that may be the beautiful part, they’ve suffered loss with their first leader’s murder years ago that understandably devastated and even stopped the painting from its members for awhile. Vogue_TDK serves as the leader of the crew now, and talked about how much of the TDK work pays tribute to their former leader still today.
Beyond discussion of the specifics of TDK, we had a great dialogue about the role photography plays in the field now. Since many photographers will post and sell their photos without giving credit to the work of the artist they are capturing, there is some understandable tension there. [Sidenote: This was not surprising as almost all of the street artists I reached out to had a slightly skeptical response to me initially, but universally wanted a dialogue and even give permission for me to sell prints once they understood my perspective on why I wanted to capture it] He shared I was only the second photographer to offer to send him prints of the photos taken of his work. That was surprising at first, but then I realized and admitted I had done the same thing unconsciously with some of my first street art photographs of the Mission District in San Francisco as well.
Artist: Reggie Warlock — His famous “Love Monsters” appear all over Oakland. He sells them as oil on canvas as well, check out his instagram: @reggiewarlock
Overall our conversation was filled with insight about our perspective on why Oakland is amazing, why the art is essential to its landscape, and how technology and gentrification isn’t necessarily killing it all — but it’s complicated. He was gracious to me and my “tourist” lens to the field of graffiti art as a whole, and I got off the phone feeling a renewed sense of inspiration to capture the landscape of art around me with a little more intention to collaborate behind it.
For collecting Morgan Shidler’s street art photography, check out morganshidler.com