2ND HONORABLE MENTION WINNER AWARD IN INTERNATIONAL COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION!
I have long been fascinated by street art, and the artistic bent and frequently talent, of anonymous individuals creating and displaying their personal take on life in public places. I have found myself intrigued in many cities - and done studies of them in Rome, Venice. Amsterdam, Washington, DC, Akureyri (IS), (and soon in Montréal ) - of a wall on which multiple individuals who came upon it added their own marks. Enriched by multiple episodes and layers of painted graffiti, in such instances, you sense the passage of time.
Here in the image OTGR, we have what appears to be one wall artist and just two layers created at one point in time. The consistency of the pattern and colorful bold red and yellow swirling, entwined, dripping broad brush strokes, although abstract, have an aesthetic similarity and compatibility.
What we don’t have is clarity in what the graffiti art represents or expresses and its relationship to the bold, red text, OTGR, assumed to be an acronym, undisclosed, by an unknown artistic individual in Amsterdam.
OTGR is an image in which details of the abstract (graffiti) blend with the realistic elements of urban life - dripping and splattered paint on the wall and dirty sidewalk, the innocence of the green grass making a cameo appearance below the shouting red acronym. The resulting image impresses upon us the duality of life, whether urban or rural, the existence of beauty and grittiness that can occur side-by-side.
What motivates individuals to produce graffiti? There are many reasons: overriding need for self-expression in public places, sometimes enriching visually, sometimes vandalizing, but using it as a platform to convey advocacy of religious or political beliefs, or social commentary, a sense of identity - or of non-conformity or rebellion, beautification, artistic expression, passion.
I am enormously grateful that the distinguished jury of the 16th International Color Awards awarded OTGR, my second Honorable Mention Winner Award in the Abstract category in this year’s international fine art color photography competition of 6,573 entries from 72 countries.
OTGR is from my URBAN IMAGES portfolio, where you will find other remarkably varied images in which I have captured details of exceptional urban wall art and combined them with my own composition of integrating abstract color and form.
OTGR