Tag: Street

Playful in Paris: Life-Sized Interactive Street Art

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Everyday objects and imperfections in the urban surfaces of Paris become part of strange and unexpected scenes as French artist Levalet incorporates them into life-sized street art. A bull head sculpture becomes a minotaur, map in hand; a figure with a jackhammer goes to work on a damaged section of wall; a display box for advertisements is transformed into an x-ray machine.

Known by day as an art teacher named Charles Leval, the artist creates humorous scenes that interact with idiosyncrasies and often-unnoticed details in the fabric of the city.

The life-sized wheat paste posters take advantage of everything from pipes and spigots to false windows and concrete recesses.

Levalet walks around the city looking for the ideal spots for his work, takes measurements and creates the paste-ups at home before returning to his chosen locations and installing the work.

He told Street Art News that he considers all of the individual scenes to be part of a larger frame, “where I try to define a cosmology of a parallel world.”

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Interactive Urbanism: 5 Simple Street Art Projects

These five street art projects, including ‘Before I Die’, invite participants to alter, comment upon or ponder their urban surroundings in new ways.
Click Here to Read More »»

Cocaine Skull: Life-Sized Sculpture Made of Street Drugs

A pile of street cocaine mixed with gelatin is sculpted into a life-sized replica of a human skull in ‘Ecce Animal,’ a statement on …
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Marvelous Muralist Makes Giant-Sized Street Art Illusions

Madrid-based street artist Sam3 creates massive murals covering entire multi-story buildings in cities like Vienna, Valencia, Quito, Berlin and Atlanta.
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

February 20, 2015
10 Vintage London Paintings Superimposed on Street View Images

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

Blending fiction and reality, art and history, this series of superimpositions takes ‘then-and-now’ imagery all the back to the 18th Century on the streets and rivers of England’s capital city. Most of the added classics (spliced with Google Street View shots) are largely unedited, a few are strategically cropped but many show a naturally stark contrast in colors, tones, lighting, and of course: street life.

Collected and collaged by Halley Docherty, these hybrids show historical structures in their built environments like St. Martin in the Fields, shown at the top (painting by William Logsdail in 1888), a church situated on the opposite side of Trafalgar Square to Northumberland House, pictured directly below (painted by Canaletto in 1752 and since demolished).

Various views of the River Thames show how the riverfronts, skylines, ships and boats and shifted in type and number over time, or highlight key points and storytelling scenes of local history set against the everyday backdrop captured by Street View vans.

Many major streets are shown at least partly as they were, albeit with some embellishments or artistic license here and there, as well as the vehicles and people that populated them (just surrounded by contemporary persons and contexts).

Other paintings shown in this collection include: A View of Greenwich from the River by Canaletto (1750–52), Blackman Street London by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1885), View of The Grand Walk by Canaletto (1751), The 9th of November, 1888 by William Logsdail (1890), The Strand Looking East from Exeter Exchange by Anonymous (1822), Covent Garden Market by Balthazar Nebot (1737), The River Thames with St. Paul’s Cathedral on Lord Mayor’s Day by Canaletto (1746) and Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath by Canaletto (1749).

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Little People of London: Miniature Urban Street Art Images

Wonderfully creative urban street art. These photographs, taken around town in London and even shown in galleries, are just a small portion of the work.
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5 Google Street View Images: Errors, Glitches & Mistakes

With so much focus on Google Street View privacy issues, many people have missed a whole subset of non-controversial but much more strange Street View images.
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Nine Eyes of Google: Street View’s Strangest Images

From the scenes shot by the nine lenses of Google’s Street View cameras, artist Jon Rafman gathers the strange, the beautiful, the haunting and the poignant.
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

January 9, 2015
7 Tips for a More Anonymous Approach to Street Photography

©Valerie Jardin

Can you imagine a world without street photography? Think of the legacy that Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, and lesser known pioneers of the genre left for us to enjoy for generations to come. We can all play a part in documenting the world around us, one photograph at a time.

One of the most common reservations people have about shooting street photography is the feeling of invading their subjects’ privacy. It’s a legitimate concern and one that can be addressed by following simple rules of respect. I always urge my workshop students to refrain from photographing people in vulnerable or embarrassing situations. It’s a simple rule: You should be able to put yourself in your subject’s shoes and be okay with your photograph being shared on social media. Photographing a beautiful story in a public place should never be a concern, anywhere in the world, if it is done with respect.

Unfortunately, as the genre gains more and more popularity, many photographers forget those essential rules of respect. That makes it even more difficult and intimidating for others to make their first steps in the exciting world of street photography.

If you are still hesitant, there are ways to include the human element in your photography without revealing their identity. Those methods can be very rewarding and make for very artistic images. So here are a few tips to help you do more anonymous street photography.

1. Photograph the back of people

Not every subject photographed from behind will make a strong image. Gesture will be the biggest factor to consider. Background and light are also strong elements. Basically, your image should be stronger shot from behind than if you had photographed the same subjects while facing them.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

2. Minimalist approach

In a minimalist approach to street photography, your subject is usually quite small but becomes the focal point in an interesting urban landscape. Look for interesting architecture, repeated patterns, geometrical shapes, etc. They all make for very interesting backgrounds. Wait for the right subject to enter your frame, et voilà!

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

3. Silhouettes

Who doesn’t love to photograph silhouettes? Again, the subject has to be well defined. There should be as few distracting elements in front of your subject as possible. Don’t hesitate to blow out the highlights for a more dramatic silhouette. The less distinguishable the background, the better! Photographing the right gesture or step are the key to a successful silhouette.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

Shooting into the sun is also a great way to create a dramatic effect while maintaining the anonymity of your subject.

©Valerie Jardin

4. Far away subjects

Street photography is best done up close for a more intimate image, but shooting from above or far away can make interesting photographs as well. The human elements, even small, draw the eye of the viewer without revealing their identity.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

5. Motion

Long exposure to create some motion blur is also a really fun way to photograph people. This works well in busy places, such as train stations. The architecture has to be interesting as it will become the highlight of the image by being the sharpest element.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

6. Darkness

Crank up that ISO! Night street photography can be so much fun. Use your best judgement and stay safe!

©Valerie Jardin

7. Abstract

Think outside the box. Street photography doesn’t have to be about faces. Find more abstract ways to photograph strangers.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

How do you approach candid street photography? Please share your experience with the dPS readers.

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The post 7 Tips for a More Anonymous Approach to Street Photography by Valerie Jardin appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

January 8, 2015
Best Specialty Articles of 2014 on dPS: Macro, Street, and Night Photography
There are so many great aspects and genres of photography it was hard to narrow it down for the best of the best series this week. Those that didn’t quite make the cut for a whole list of their own can be found here. They include: macro, street and night photography.

If you enjoy these types of photography here are a few of the top articles over the last year in these categories:

Macro
- Reverse Lens Macro: How to use it as a Great Learning Tool
- Getting Started Guide to Macro or Close-Up Photography
- Equipment for Macro Photography – Video Tips
- Funny Macro Dragonfly Photo
Street Photography

I was basically running behind these guys with a wide lens. Good timing is everything in street photography.
- 50 Things I Try to Avoid in Street Photography
- 7 Street Photography Tips and Exercises to Try This Season
- A Common Misconception About Street Photography – Just Take Photos of People Walking
- 8 Things You Should Know if You are Dating a Street Photographer
- How to Create Amazing Urban Landscape and Street Photography Images
- Practical Tips To Build Your Street Photography Confidence
- Using Humor In Street Photography
- In the Dark: 10 Tips for Street Night Photography
Night Photography
- Beginners Tips for Night Sky and Star Photography
- 9 Tips to Help you get Sharp Focus at Night
- How to do Long Exposure Photography and Light Trails at Night
- 2 Night Photography Video Tutorials
- Do you pack up and leave after sunset and miss the fun of night photography?
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The post Best Specialty Articles of 2014 on dPS: Macro, Street, and Night Photography by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
January 2, 2015
Weekly Photography Challenge – Graffiti Street Art
In an earlier post I shared a set of some images of street art, also often referred to as graffiti.

If you live an urban area or any city, than likely you have some of this type of art nearby. Graffiti artists range from ones who just seems to do vandalism, to other who are highly talented and skilled artists.

Your job in this week’s photograph challenge is to seek out some street art in your area and photograph it in a manner fitting for the artwork. That could mean some grungy post-processing, a funky filter over the lens, or whatever creative idea you can come up with.

Let’s see a few more examples of graffiti street art:

By Rob Schofield

By Pedro Ribeiro Simões

By Brent Pearson

By Charlón

By Jason Taellious

Share your graffiti street are images here:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Need some help getting started? Try these dPS articles:
- How to add a Grunge Effect to your Portraits using Lightroom (works on any kind of image also)
- 4 Steps to Photoshop Artistry Using Fine Art Grunge Techniques
- An Introduction to Urban Exploration
- Urban Exploration Photography – Urbex
- Focus on Scott Frederick – Urban Explorer
By Professor Bop

By Brent Pearson

By mamasuco ……un peu absent

By Keoni Cabral

By badjonni

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The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Graffiti Street Art by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 13, 2014
33 Gritty Photos of Graffiti Street Art

Urban photography is a great way to get out and find some unique images, whether in your own city or abroad. Cities provide a multitude of interesting subjects. In this week’s image collection I’ve found a bunch of gritty photos of street art, also known as graffiti.

In some cities like Melbourne they encourage this graffiti and businesses or the government actually sponsor the artists and provide a space to create murals and street art.

Enjoy this series of grungy, gritty, street photography and art.

Justin arrives by Shady ezz on 500px

Street Tagging by Lin Zee on 500px

Colors and the City by Xavier Liard on 500px

street art by Samir Salim on 500px

around the corner by Dragan Todorovi? on 500px

Graffiti Invasion by Liban Yusuf on 500px

Dónde está el 7º cielo?? by Gemma B&N on 500px

Graffiti? by antoni targarona on 500px

Fisheye: Melbourne Street Art by Tom Cunningham on 500px

Pump Dream by Fred Adams on 500px

Vanishing Point by Len Saltiel on 500px

Ace of Spades by Fred Adams on 500px

Colors And Lines by Burak Arik on 500px

Work or Cupcake by Kent Atwell on 500px

graffiti by Vladimir Perfanov on 500px

painting the town by Shady ezz on 500px

{ Walk along } by Thai Hoa Pham on 500px

physical graffiti by victor cucos on 500px

Dark Room III by Xavier Liard on 500px

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.. by Mathijs van den Bosch on 500px

woman on the wall by Gabor Nagy on 500px

Lost shoes by Joanna Lemanska on 500px

Graffiti face by Brian Behling on 500px

dark tunnel by Gianluca Sgarriglia on 500px

blue eye by Sergio Spiegel on 500px

Urban Graffiti @ by Philippe PONSIN on 500px

graffiti tunnel 02 by Paul Hinderer on 500px

Mid-Levels Street Art by Postcards from the World on 500px

Reckless Abandon by Nick Cox on 500px

NY Style Pizza, Jing’an by Craig McCormick on 500px

Graffiti Lane by Paul Hinderer on 500px

Surprise! by Brian Sanders on 500px

Ghost train by Xavier Liard on 500px

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The post 33 Gritty Photos of Graffiti Street Art by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 12, 2014
Street Pong: Play with Fellow Pedestrians at Traffic Lights

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

You might not be too concerned about how many light cycles go by before you actually get to cross the street if you’re too busy playing pong with the person waiting on the other side of the intersection. The ActiWait project aims to brings ‘street pong’ to intersections around the world, with two functioning games already installed in the city of Hildesheim, Germany.

The concept made its debut on the web in 2012, with the original video (below) getting so much attention that the interaction design students from HAWK University who created it decided to make it real. Designers Amelie Künzler, Sandro Angel and Holger Michel collaborated with traffic experts and fabricators to create a device that can be installed on traffic poles.

“Yeah well… the idea was simple but traffic engineering isn’t,” say the designers on their IndieGoGo page, where they’re currently raising funds to bring the ActiWait to more cities. “So we got us some support from companies and professionals in the traffic technology industry. The prototype is 3D printed and fully equipped, the first game is programmed and we’ve already launched our product in October so we can proudly say: the world’s first smart pedestrian light button is finally here!”

The product needs funding to develop hardware and software for the final stage, a new professionaly-produced case, and to pass safety tests. The designers also intend to make it wifi capable for news feeds, navigation, traffic education and other applications in addition to pong – even speed dating. Learn more at IndieGoGo.

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Stop, Look and Love: 8 Redesigns of Classic Traffic Lights

The instantly-recognizable traffic light has been a standard sight on streets around the world for generations, but these designs aim to improve on a classic.
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Dancing Traffic Signal Makes Crossing the Street More Fun

Impatient pedestrians eager to get across the street stop, point and laugh when they realize that the usually-static human figure in the crosswalk signal is …
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Illuminating Inventions: 10 Twists to Simple Street Lights

Functional street lights tend to fade into the background for most of us, but these designers have creatively re-imagined the humble piece of urban furniture.
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[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 9, 2014
Street Style: Apparel Custom-Printed with Scalable City Maps

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Taking customized couture to the streets, Monochome allows you to turn any urban grid at a scale of your choice into a unique tank top, t-shirt, flare or pencil skirt.

Using OpenStreetMap, the company lets you select between a black-on-white figure/ground representation or more traditionally-gridded white-on-black map. Ordered now and these should arrive by Christmas – a perfect holiday gift to compliment some urban grid dog tags.

The user-friendly selection tool allows you to get incredibly precise with your pick, creating a composition that is both personalized and aesthetically pleasing through a combination of panning and zooming. The above set of four examples, for instance, are simply variations on the same location at different scales.

A number of standard cities are presented but you can also search for your own location or address or your choice. Due to the nature of OpenStreetMap, you are encouraged to add data for any place not already in the system.

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Custom Textiles Put the City You Love Right in Your Hands

Everyone has a favorite place. These napkins and blankets show off the places most important to you by putting a customized map right on their surface.
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Wear You Live: T-Shirts and Totes Printed with City Maps

CityFabric creates t-shirts, totes and prints that are painstakingly hand-printed with maps of the city of your choice, including Raleigh, Brooklyn and Seattle.
Click Here to Read More »»

Urban Dog Tags: Wear City Grids Around Your Neck & The World

Like giant-sized fingerprints, urban grid patterns are unique to each city – this project turns that individuating property into an wearable asset, …
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 5, 2014
Wall is Over: Art Students Whitewash Historical Street Murals

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

In an audacious and contentious move, a group of young artists took it upon themselves to paint over the famous John Lennon Wall in Prague, replacing decades of layered mural work, drawings and tags with the message: “Wall is Over”. While the surface in question has particularly significant meaning for the local population, it has also long been a global symbol of resistance against governmental oppression – its clearing has thus become a border-crossing controversy.

Calling themselves Prague Service, the arts collective in question wanted to create a blank slate for future writers, reworking the wall that got its name after the assassination of its namesake. The piece was also intended to work as a combination tribute to Lennon, referencing the song Happy Xmas (War is Over), and celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia. Of their work, they write: “Twenty-five years ago, one big totalitarian wall fell … Students of art schools are expressing their commemoration of (1989) and opening room for new messages of the current generation.”

According to Hyperallergic (with details from the French Associated Press): “It didn’t take long for others to take advantage of the free space and begin filling the Lennon Wall with tags again. However, the wall’s owner, the Order of Malta, was not so quick to dismiss the incident, and is pursuing legal action against the artists.”

While the intentions behind this buffing of history may have been good, there may be unintended references as well to an era of Communist domination in which free expression was limited and street art was also painted over for political reasons. Images above and below via Rick Chan, Matushy, Steven Feather, Eregoion, Brandon Schauer and Brian Beggerly.

More on the history of the John Lennon Wall: “In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of Gustáv Husák. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as “Lennonism” and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism.”

In fairness to the students who edited it, the wall will not be over for long – its surface will continue to be reinvented over time: “The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of global ideals such as love and peace.”

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Graffiti Sites: Train, Wall, Street & Subway Photos

Though it’s found all over the world, graffiti tends to accumulate on the same spaces in each location. Most commonly: trains, walls, city streets, and subways.
Click Here to Read More »»

Subtractive Street Art: Sculptural Murals Cut into City Walls

Vhils is adept at carving, cutting and peeling to reveal art inside solid surfaces, but his artistic experiments also include carefully-calculated explosions …
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Street Art, Decades Apart: 40 Then & Now Graffiti Photos

We tend to notice as buildings come and go, skylines change and grow with planning and oversight, but what about the spray-painted wall art the adorns the …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

December 3, 2014
Flowering Potholes: Lovely Tile Plants Fill Ugly Street Voids

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

An uniquely elegant solution to a dirty everyday problem, these gorgeous handcrafted tile mosaics are turning unfilled potholes back into functional pieces of city street surface all over Chicago.

This time with an emphasis on beautification, mosaic maker Jim Bachor is back at it again. He is somewhat widely known in the area for using Chicago flags and and other city-themed infill to patch problematic holes in the urban fabric previously.

More on the artist’s background and inspiration: “Volunteering to work on an archaeological dig in Pompeii helped merge these two interests in to my art. In the ancient world, mosaics were used to capture images of everyday life. These colorful pieces of stone or glass set in mortar were the photographs of empires long past. Marble and glass do not fade. Mortar is mortar. An ancient mosaic looks exactly as intended by the artist who produced it over two millennia ago. What else can claim that kind of staying power? I find this idea simply amazing.”

In part, his work on the streets aims to draw attention to the 500,000+ potholes that remain unfixed at any given time, in part a byproduct of the harsh temperature shifts from winter to summer and back again (or as is said in the Midwest: ‘winter and road repair’ seasons).

“Using the same materials, tools and methods of the archaic craftsmen, I create mosaics that speak of modern things in an ancient voice. My work locks into mortar unexpected concepts drawn from the present … it surprises the viewer while challenging long-held notions of what a mosaic should be. Like low-tech pixels, hundreds if not thousands of tiny, hand-cut pieces of Italian glass and marble comprise my work.”

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Urban Infill: Colorful Tile Mosaics Patch Potholed Streets

In a city with over a half-million open potholes, one artist is helping address the problem and raising awareness by installing his own creative patches, …
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Sci-Fi Staple: Star Wars Mosaic Made of Surprising Material

Virtually no artistic medium has gone unexplored in the quest to celebrate the continuing legacy of the Star Wars series. There have been life-sized X-wing …
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Sand Paintings: Temporary Street Art Will Blow (You) Away

After 650 such works, it is perhaps no wonder that this artist generates each new sand painting spontaneously on the spot, letting the pattern evolve as he …
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

November 5, 2014