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

(A) I’ve been taking photos of graffiti both on walls and trains since ’88.. I’m in my early 30′s now, so I was a young’un when I seriously pursued both the artistic and documentary aspect of the culture.. Trains on the other hand were an inate part of my existance given that my grandfather was a hobo, ridin’ the rails from Hickory, NC to California and back constantly.. It was/is a natural progression from me as a means to seemingly pay homage to him and celebrate the art that I love..

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

(A) I prefer digital as it would be impossible to share my visual tales with the entire world if not for this undoubtedly wonderful medium and the coupling of the internet with it.. I own a storage shed worth of hard copies, albums and negatives that would make people sh*t on themselves if they saw what I have.. Wait for the book and you’ll see what I mean..

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

(A) 100,000+ I’m surprised I didn’t bankrupt myself buying film before switching to digital..

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

(A) I’m encouraged by the sheer number of video mags out right now that focus on the live action of benching.. Truth is, it’s all photography in some way, shape or form.. But still photography plays THE essential part in archiving the culture.. Without DSLR benchers, what would one place in their albums or adorn their walls with?? You surely can’t manage that with a video..

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

(A) I could bore you with bull chases, candy-colored sunsets over the yard at dusk to die for, batteries dying at the absolute worst moment; but I won’t do that.. My most memorable moment was cruising Venice Beach in ’99 at the B-boy summit with the homies when a full-scale riot broke out all around me.. I didn’t waivor in shooting while getting pushed around by armor-clad SWAT officers.. In the midst of it all, Crazy Legs from the Almighty Rock Steady Crew, broke into full-on b-boying right in front of these police in a seminal ‘fu*k you’ LAPD! And I was right there 10 feet away from it all snapping away.. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience..

Location: Sacramento, CA

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Daim has a new website! We sat down with the 3D Style Maestro from Hamburg and did an interview about Graffiti, Getting Up, Taping and many more!

It’s been pretty quiet around you, especially new wall productions from you can only be seen rarely. What has happened in recent years, how are you?

I cannot say that it calmed down but there had to be a kind of consolidation. After turbulent years with many trips, exhibitions and projects in which I was also often involved in the organization, I needed a stage of concentration on my own artistic work. This meant to me quite clear to focus on few but renowned projects and exhibitions. I wanted to get back a feeling for where I stand with my work as an artist and also as an active writer in the graffiti scene.

For example, by the Urban Discipline exhibition series and the published books, there were times when you had to ask yourself if you are leading more an event agency or a publisher than being an artist. But basically it was always clear in my mind that my artistic work has to be the focus and I have shifted my efforts in recent years to that effect again.
I could focus on the stuff that is important to me, develop new forms and methods and take part in first-class exhibitions.

The new generation probably knows less about you. Daim is standing for probably the world’s best 3D styles. Hardly anyone will disagree with that. But how has Daim started and got down to what you are doing now at last? Such skills are not found on the street?

Well, it certainly started at the age of 15 with listening to Hip Hop music, noticing the first graffiti in the city, drawing the first styles and then two years later grabbing a can for the first time. And of course there was the attraction of belonging to a small special group of people who adapted this new “culture” from America. You are feeling to be someone special. It never occurred to me at the beginning that I’m doing arts or even being an artist. But since I’ve drawn and painted a lot in a short time it became clear to me very quickly that this would be a prospect for my future life.

But the development of an own style doesn’t work only by talent. Rather it’s the effort to go out again and again and actually realize ones ideas. Since I could already live from orders after finishing school, having a car available soon and also the necessary time, I managed to work out something influential quickly. But of course I would never have succeeded in this way without the full support of my parents.

click here to read the rest of the interview..

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Montana teamed up with Cope 2 to drop this limited edition spray can blessed with throwies..

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

(A) The first stuff I photographed was around 01-02 but I wasn’t really “documenting”.. I couldn’t afford to shoot film and the cameras were around 3-4 megapixels which, quite frankly have some poor quality.. It wasn’t until about 2005 when I moved into the Treehouse Gallery (RIP) in the warehouse district in downtown los angeles that I got into it.. Mostly going on drunken sprees at night around the area and checking out all the art shows.. Being around artists and photogs again really got me back into taking more pictures and opened my eyes to what people were doing on the streets..

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

(A) I’m too disorganized for albums but I do have prints scattered around.. I originally started shooting film of urban landscapes and random shit in the nineties when I had free access to a darkroom and free chemicals but all that became expensive when I moved back to LA. I prefer digital because it’s so quick and easy to shoot and cheap..

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

(A) In total about 20,000+ I’m a pack rat so I have them stored all over the place.. Straight graffiti I have maybe 8,000… maybe a little less.. A lot of them I haven’t put up yet..

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

(A) I understand more about the culture now than ever before but I still have a lot to learn.. I was also on solo photo missions, not just graffiti but I’d go out and take whatever I saw. My background is rooted in old school punk and death metal so “graffiti” to me was the shit my friends and I and their older brothers were doing… scribbling anarchy signs everywhere and CRASS symbols and anti-system slang.. In terms of documentation, photos are like a history of living frozen in time..

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

(A) The one moment that comes to mind is almost walking into a lot lizard session.. I was with RATHANDSOME and he was motioning me to get away cuz I was around the corner from some shit going down.. I ran over and we hid behind some trains while these two started going at it.. Both of us were kicking ourselves for not having zoom lenses.. Nothing beats life in the raw!! People doing what they want and not giving a fuck..

Location: Los Angeles, CA

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“The “At Large” homeys have been putting a smackdown recently on some Shepard Fairey “OBEY” walls throughout the East & West Coasts within the past couple of weeks. Word has it that the throw-ups in NYC were done at 8am in the morning and the ones in LA were done around 8pm at night. TRUE STORY. Revenge is best served cold.” – Ricks

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Peep this video of Bates doin what he does brought to you by Ironlak..

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

(A) First photos was taken around 1986/87 when I moved up to the “Ile-de-France” (the Paris suburbs) at this time, each day I was riding a south section of the D-line to go to school and each day I sticked up to the windows to learn about the graffiti… this leads me to start painting around a year after.

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

(A) I lost two books from the early 90′s, I still own one of the oldies and I tried to re-print some of the old negatives but it’s almost impossible to get the half of what I lost. Leave your books outside your house and if you want your photos back, take a good lawyer. Now, like many of us, I do not prefer digital but the cheaper the better.

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

(A) Not that much, around one thousand and a half. Most of the pictures are up on my flickr, i try to share most of them there.

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

(A) Without the works of photographers, I don’t think graffiti will be as global as it is now. In good and very bad ways.

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

(A) Ten years ago, I was walking on track sides to take some pictures of silver dubs done the week before by some friends. There were some workers a kilometre back on the left side, so I stayed on the same side, walking close to a long wall, but I heard some guys talking and walking near me. There was no way out except jumping in some bushes on my left. When I did that, my shoulder hit a fucking anthill behind the bushes, I fell right on top of it and I got up instantly and yelled loud that scared the two guys away. They ran off the tracks quicker than I jumped, but one of them tripped on a rail and smashed his face on the granite railway ballast. He hit it real hard. Just so happens that they were just kids going back home after school who walked by the spot I was shooting at… I apologized for scaring them and I took off my jacket and shirt… the ants were killing me.

“I tried my best to hide my french accent! One more time, thanks for this request, it was a pleasure to do and it was a good training for my crappy english also!” – CPSH74

Location: Nemrock – South Side of Paris

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These females get it in on this ill Sesame Street production..

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For as long back as I can remember i’ve always been a huge fan of Tyke’s work but most importantly his original style.. Those lil monster looking cartoon faces in his letters are fucking wild!! Anyway, Tyke aka Witnes recently teamed up with LRG & Montana to launch “Viet Nam” the world tour.. Peep this video of Tyke burning this wall in Amsterdam.. ugghhh!!

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

(A) I began taking pics of graffiti the same day I bought my 1st DSLR back in 2006. I was driving home thru Houston’s East End when something colorful flashed in my rear view mirror. I busted a U-Turn and stopped near a run down abandoned building. The broken walls were covered in graffiti. This was the first pic I took – and its still my favorite til this day:

http://flickr.com/photos/marcofromhouston/1280845617/

Since then, I’ve been trying to capture the same “high” I got that day from hunting graffiti.

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

(A) I’ve never owned a film camera. I have worked with film on projects with other photographers, but nothing graff related. My photography (graffiti, concerts, portraits) is all digital. I have printed many of my graffiti shots for art shows, and i’ve been lucky enough to sell most of the prints. I love to have my images printed on Metallic paper – it makes the piece and the colors “pop” like you wouldn’t believe! I recently had the “JADE DTS” pic printed in a huge 72×48 size…… I have it hanging on my wall at home.

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

(A) I only have about 1300 graffiti pics posted on Flickr. I have maybe 3 or four times that many saved on 2 hard drives at home. That’s nothing compared to the other photogs featured on Aerosol Fiends……

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

(A) Documenting – yes. As much as you can describe a piece of graffiti to someone, there is nothing like actually showing them a picture. Well, actually – seeing it in person is the best way. So yea – Photography is the next best thing to being there…….

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

(A) I went to Cali last year and I worked for the famous photographer Estevan Oriol for a few days. One of the walls in his studio had some big graffiti names on it (Tlok, Bucket, Claw Money). Then we worked on a large production video/photo shoot in Downtown LA the next day, and Rime MSK was there painting a wall for the shoot! I got to sit and talk to him for a while.

Location: Houston, TX

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