(Q) How long have you been taking photos of graffiti & what interests you to do so?

(A) A: I first started paying attention to graffiti around 2000, but I didn’t start taking photos till around 2003. I used to just hop on my skateboard and explore back alleys looking for stuff on walls whenever I was downtown, but these days I’ve really turned my attention to freight train graffiti. I think what interests me most is that a freight yard is like a rolling art gallery: theres a new exhibit everytime you go back.

(A) P: Only a couple years now. Calgary is full of the worst graffiti and wackest writers, no offence, and of course with the exception of a few. I moved onto strictly freight graffiti quickly. Then after drinking a few brews one day and going through A’s flicks I guess I just got interested in benching more and that’s when we came up with the idea to merge our pictures and create A&P Bench.

(Q) Do you own photo albums of actual prints or do you prefer digital??

(A) A: I used to rock an old Nikon film camera so I had to get my pictures developed all the time. My house got robbed and I lost that camera. I ended up replacing it with a nice digital Nikon D70 since film was on the way out. As I’ve started to take more and more photos, I’ve moved away from prints. I don’t have the time or money to do it right now, but I do have a folder titled “prints” of photos I plan to develop at some point.

(A) P: I do own quite a few actual prints. Some in albums and some scattered in a sock drawer. Nowadays there really is no other way to go than digital, considering the mass amounts of pictures human beings take on a 24 earth hour day to day basis.

(Q) How many photos are in your personal collection??

(A) A: I think I’ve got close to 4,000 pictures total. About 2,000 pictures of walls and 2,000 pictures of freights. Not too many, but I live outside the city limits where there is no transit and no graffiti, so going out and taking pictures wasn’t a common thing as a kid. Since we started up the flickr, I’ve really started making a bigger effort to keep the pictures coming in for the followers of our photostream. I’ll come back with about 130 pictures after a good day of benching and I bench usually around 3-4 days a week.

(A) P: Just over 1000 plus about 30 from today that I gotta ID, upload, and share with comrades.

(Q) Do you feel photography plays a major role in documenting graffiti culture??

(A) A: Yes, I think it definitely does. What else is going to document it?? Especially because it is such temporary art form. A couple throwies on a rooftop will be gone in two days around here. I think that’s what has turned me towards photographing freights a lot more. With walls, I can only document what’s now, and what’s in the future. With freights I can dig back into graffiti history and still catch pieces from 15 years ago.

(A) P: Who knows. I saw one dude on a forum upload far too many freight flicks and every single one was blurred to the point you couldn’t make out what anything was. It doesn’t take much to just place yourself in front, hold the camera still and level and take a few shots, given the circumstances of lighting, trespassing, and not thinking Arbys.

(Q) Do you have any crazy stories or memorable moments while taking photos??

(A) A: Heh, well taking photos you don’t get any of the crazy chase stories some writers have, but I do have a few memorable moments. One night around summer of 2006 I decided I was going to climb up this billboard and get some close up shots of graffiti on them. So around 2am I made my way up there. The little platform was too close to fit the graffiti in the photo so I had to lay down and lean back on it with the top half of my body hanging over the edge… cool to feel the rush the writers would have had.

Another moment I always laugh about took place in around 2004. There’s an area near the river in town that is really sketchy: a lot of muggings and violence, and naturally lots of graffiti. At this time I was a skinny 15 year old kid walking around with a nice big camera that may as well be a sign that says “Mug Me!”. I figured the best way to avoid sketchy homeless drug addicts was to become one. So I would throw some dirt on my hoodie, tuck the camera away inside, throw the hood up, walk with a fake limp all hunched over like Quasimodo and stroll on through. Felt like I was risking everything I owned, but nobody ever bothered me. Should have gotten an Oscar for that performance!!

(A) P: Nearly getting hit by engines, finding lots of wholecars/end to ends in one day, playing tic tac toe, getting rolled up on, right place at the right time, finding old streaks, working in a train yard for 2 years, standing on rolling steel, milk and coffee…. The list goes on and on dude. We do a good job of documenting the best and fun times and sharing them on flickr. If you get addicted to the internet(and I’m sure theres far worse out there, like 50 cent) then check out our stream and follow our stupid lives of following other peoples artistic rad lifes.

Location: A: Alberta, Canada

Location: P: Calgary, AB

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