Graffiti

One of my favorite things to do here in Salvador is to look at graffiti as I am riding the bus around. It is always fun to notice new pictures and to try to get a better look at some of the amazingly intricate pieces that are out there, especially since the bus is usually zooming by so fast that it is a challenge to get a good view.

During the first six months of my time here, back in 2006, I had an idea to take a lot of pictures of graffiti and then put on a photography show when I got back to the US. Obviously I have not been back long enough to do this, but it is still on my list of things that I want to do. I have over 200 pictures of graffiti from Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Allegre, some of which is truly amazing. My camera is just a hand held digital, but takes decent pictures so I think that I can pull it off.

Given that I just started thinking about this project again, I decided that I need to get out on the street with my camera and get some new pictures. I have not taken any graffiti photos for some time now and since it is always changing, there is always something new to get a picture of! I took these pictures last Sunday in the Barra neighborhood.

I am kind of excited to continue this project and bring it to fruition when I am back in the US. I also have another idea for a different photography project, but need to think about it some more before starting it. It could be a little more complicated as it involves photographing people, but we shall see. I want to take pictures of people wearing t-shirts that have really bad English on them. Salvador is full of Brazilians who think they are being cool by wearing t-shirts with English sayings on them. Only problem is that many of these shirts have really bad translations, misspellings, or make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

One example: An older woman (about 65, and kind of hobbling around) with a black t-shirt that said "Wanted: midnight drummer for rock band". I have seen many many others as I walk around, but can´t think of them now. I think this has the potential for being a cool project, if I can figure out how to approach people on the street.

Here are a couple other pics of graffiti...enjoy!