Evolution of Graffiti

By- Royals Limbu

Worldwide History Of Graffiti

Derived from the Italian sgraffio, meaning ‘scratch’, 1960s and 1970s, protesters made their view Initially graffiti artists often used either their their property from graffiti by putting up fences
graffiti has been around since the beginning of public with posters and painted words. French real names ir nicknames, but soon the first around station yards and buffing trains regularly.
mankind. Pictures, such as those at the Lascaux students often turned to the pochoir (the french pseudonyms started to appear. The glut of new As the New York writerstravelled around, the
Caves in France, were mostly carved into the cave word for the stencil graffiti) technique, the graffiti artists brandishing their names across graffiti phenomenon spread throughout the
walls with bones or stones, but early man also precursor of the present- day stencil movement. the whole city inspired writers to find new ways whole of USA, and soon trains became targets
anticipated the stencil and spray technique, blow- Today’s graffiti developed towards the end of to make their work stand out. Tags got bigger in Europe. At the same time, the first exhibitions
ing coloured powder through hollow bones around the 1970s in New York and Philadelphia, where and bigger until the first ‘pieces’ (short for ‘mas- took place in Amsterdam and Antwerp. Pieces
his hands to make silhouettes. In ancient Greece, artists such as Taki 183, Julio 204, Cat 161 and terpieces’) appeared on New York trains. Many started to appear in almost every European city
fragments of clay were found on which notes had Cornbeard painted their names on walls or subway artists sought recognition, either by spray-paint- from the early 1980s, although Amsterdam and
been carved, while excavations in Pompeii brought stations around Manhattan. The unique make-up ing the most trains or the best pieces. Stencil Madrid had fostered and earlier graffiti move-
to light a wealth of graffiti, including election of New York City - in which the Harlem slums and and street ment that had its root in punk.
slogans, drawings and obscenities. the glamorous world of Broadway stand side by artists, meanwhile, wanted to communicate with However, it was only really with the arrival of
In 1904, the first magazine to be focus on toilet side -- seems to have been a breeding - ground the passer-by or shape their environment without hip-hop that the European graffiti scene took off.
graffiti was launched: Anthropophyteia. Later for the first graffiti artists, bringing together many any constraints. The majority of graffiti in Europe was based on
on, during the Second World War, the Nazis used different cultures and class issues in one single Seen, Lee, Dondi (RIP), Stayhigh 149, Zephyr, the American model, which remains the most
writing on walls for their Propoganda Machines place. This environment fuelled an artistic battle Blade and Iz the Wiz became heroes through popular to this day. With hip-hop, graffiti entered
to stir up hatred towards Jews and dissidents. against the power brokers in society, and a break- the sheer quantity abd quality if their work. almost every Western and Western-influenced
However, graffiti was also important for resistance away from the poverty and the ghetto. Cornbeard, Artists initially targeted trains because they country and then started to edge out further
movements as a ways of publisizing their protests for example, became notorious by spray-painting often travelled through the whole city and were afield. Asia and South America caught on later,
to the general public. One example is ‘The White his ‘tag’ (the stricking signature of a graffiti artist) seen by millions of people. By the mid-1980s. it but their graffiti culture is now growing at a phe-
Rose’ a group of German noncomformists who on an elephant in a zoo. Through these pioneers, was claimed , there was not a single train that nomenal rate and has already reached a high
spoke out agains Hitler and his regime in 1942 American graffiti was born, sweepingthrough the had not at one time been spray-painted from top standard, particularly in South America.
through leaflets and painted slogans, until their world and drawing thousands of youngsters under to bottom. This changed in around 1986, when
capture in 1943. During the student revolts in the its spell. the New York authorities took steps to protect
 Today, the art world and the general public is
more open toward graffiti art. The public has
become more tolerant and appreciative of this
underground art. In Los Angeles, for example: The
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) organized
an exhibit celebrating urban graffiti on walls,
subways and buses; and it proved to be a hugely
successful show.
The ‘Art in the Streets Exhibit’ featured
prominent street artists like Taki 183, Banksy,
Keith Haring, Henry Chalfant, etc. This is actually
the first major US museum exhibit on graffiti and
street art. The exhibition traces the development
of graffiti art from the 70s to the international
movement it’s become today. It featured installa-
tions, paintings, sculptures and mixed media that
helped shape the evolution of graffiti art.
Graffiti art is widely recognized around the
world. There have been exhibits and galleries
worldwide dedicated to the celebration of graffiti
art. Another prestigious exhibition is ‘Born in the
Streets’, at the Fondation Center in Paris, France.

Graffiti Today
The Here And Now

The New York model of graffitit centered has been set up by enthusiasts and artists. One
around the distortion of letters, but many new example is ‘Art Crimes’, which has become the
approaches have since emerged - pushing the definitive worldwide siste for highlighting the
boundaries of graffiti culture. Over the years, talent of many writers for a wider audiene. In
the original style has developed to encompass many countries, these banks of pictures and
a whole range if different typographic forms: the information data are an important means of
legible ‘blockletter’, the distorted and interwined access to influences from other parts of the
‘wildstyle’, the familiar ‘bubble style’ and ‘3D’. world. Before the internet revolution, different
Characters, which started iff as an ancillaries continents, cities and even districts had their
to letters, now form their own graffiti group own distinctive graffiti cultures. Today, those
and range from the comical figures to those of local differences still exist to some extent but
perfect photorealism. Logo and iconic graffiti, on have been inspired by styles from all over the
the other hand, specialize in striking emblems or world. For countries such as South Africa and
figures respectively. Russia, which artists have tended to neglect on
Although the spraycan, the traditional their travels, and where it is often impossible to
graffiti tool, remains key to writers worldwide, the get hold of graffiti magazines and books, good-
choice of material available these days - oil or quality spraycans and caps (the spraycan nozzle,
acrylic paint, airbrush, oil-based chalks, posters which determines the spray width), the iternet
and stickers, to name a few - is extensive and can offer invaluable possibilities.
has widened the scope artistically. The stencil The various historical aspects of graffiti
technique (which involve using a paintbrush or brought together in this book, and the different
spraycan to paint images or words through a forms and techniques that are around today,
template) has recently brought to the fore some have made it necessary to group all the style
of the most recognizable graffiti artists - such branches under the word ‘Graffiti’. Many artists
as English artist Banksy, with his mix of ironic tend to distance themselves from this word
and politically motivated pictures, and German because they think that it is no longer contem-
‘Bananensprayer’ Thomas Baumgartel, who has porary. Morever, it often conjures up image of
stencilled his bananas on countless galleries vandalism and defacenment, or is treated as a
and museums. generic term for the street art. As a result, a lot
The emergence of the internet has also of artists prefer to label their work as ‘aerosol
played an interesting role in the evolution of art’, ’post-graffiti’, ’neo-graffiti’ and ‘street art’ in
graffiti. Although some artists shun this new order to differentiate themselves. I do not wish
medium, arguing the direct experience of the to make any reference to vandilism by using the
art form is crucial, many graffiti artists and their term ‘Graffiti’ but, rather, to include and present
followers have welcomed it with open arms as a specific graffiti style, along with their most
na additional field of action. Massive archives interesting pioneers.
 FOREWORD

Graffiti as we know it today may have a relatively short history

but it has managed to touch almost every corner of the globe.
Letters used to fominate but today the culture has expand-
ed: new forms are explored and characters, symbols and
abstractions have begun to proliferate. Over the past few
years, graffiti artists have been using a wider scope of
expression. Personal style is free to develop without any
constraint, and stickers, posters, stencils, airbrush, oil-based
chalk, all varaties of paint and even sculpture are used. Most
artists have been liberated from relying solely on the spray-
can.
As a result, many now refer to a post- graffiti movement,
characterized by more innovative approaches to form and
technique that go beyond traditional perceprions of the
classic graffiti style. To reflect these changes in the graffiti
world, these new directions have become a focus of this
book.
In this book, I am focusing on the specific evolution of the
graffiti known as ‘Light Graffiti’. I have tried to attempt the
most comprehensive presentation ever published of the most
intersting and influential artists of the related techniques and
a truly unique perspective of it. I have deliberately not divided
the contents by any country, sex or race , deciding instead
to order artists by my personal favourites. This is because
nationality, race and sex have no bearing on the graffiti scene.

Royals Limbu

Ashford, UK, 2015

1
What is Light Graffiti? History
Light graffiti, more specifically light drawing, dates back to 1889 when Étienne-Jules Marey and
Light graffiti, or light drawing, is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a
Georges Demeny created the first known light painting “Pathological Walk From in Front”
hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to
In 1949 Pablo Picasso was visited by Gjon Mili, a photographer and lighting innovator,
shine a point of light directly at the camera. Light painting can also describe works where the camera
who introduced Picasso to his photographs of ice skaters with lights attached to their skates.
itself is moved during exposure.
Immediately Picasso started making images in the air with a small flashlight in a dark room.
Painting with a point of light on a long exposure dates back to 1889, and was used in Frank
This series of photos became known as Picasso’s “light drawings.” Of these photos, the most
Gilbreth’s work with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth in 1914, when the pair used small lights and the
celebrated and famous is known as “Picasso draws a Centaur”. During the 1970s and 80’s Eric
open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in
Staller used this technology for numerous photo projects that were called “Light Drawings”.
his 1935 series “Space Writing,” was the first known art photographer to use the technique.
Light paintings up to 1976 are classified as light drawings. In 1977 Dean Chamberlain gave
Photographer Barbara Morgan began making light paintings in 1940.
birth to light painting (using handheld lights to selectively illuminate and/or color parts of the
subject or scene) with his image “Polyethylene Bags On Chaise Longue” at The Rochester
Institute of Technology. Dean Chamberlain was the first artist to dedicate his entire body of
Techniques work to the light painting art form. The artist photographer Jacques Pugin made several se-
ries of images with the light drawing technique in 1979. Picasso and Mili’s images should be
Traditional light painting uses handheld lights to selec-
regarded as some of the first light drawings. Now, with modern light painting, one uses more
tively illuminate or color parts of the subject or scene.
frequently choreography and performance to photograph and organize.
Light painting requires a slow shutter speed, usually
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Steve Mann invented, designed, built, and used various
at least a second in duration. Light painting can take
wearable computers to visualize real-world phenomena such as sound waves, radio waves, and
on the characteristics of a traditional painter.
sight fields by light painting using computational photography.
Light paintings can be created using a webcam. The
This artform enjoyed a surge in popularity in the 21st century, partly due to the increasing
painted image can already be seen while drawing by
availability of dSLR cameras, advances in portable light sources such as LEDs, and also in part
using a monitor or projector. Another technique is the
due to the advent of media sharing websites by which practitioners can exchange images and
projection of images on to irregular surfaces (such as
ideas.
faces or buildings), in effect “painting” them with light.
A photograph or other fixed portrayal of the resulting
image is then made.
Kinetic light painting is achieved by moving the
camera, and is the antithesis of traditional photog-
raphy. At night, or in a dark room, the camera can be
removed from the tripod and used like a paintbrush.
An example is using the night sky as the canvas, the
camera as the brush and artificially-lit cityscapes as
the palette. Putting energy into moving the camera by
stroking lights,[clarification needed] making patterns
and laying down backgrounds can create abstract
artistic images.
Michael Bosanko Eric Staller
Light painting photographer Michael Bosanko has been capturing light since 2004. He discovered Light artist Eric Staller could be called the father of light drawing or light graffiti in its present day
light painting on accident, Michael says this of his moment of discovery, “the moon formed part of form. Staller was born in 1947 in New York. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan
the scene, but the camera shake caused the moon to make a streak. My curious mind clipped the and graduated with a bachelors degree in 1971. Towards the end of his time at UOM Eric started to
camera from the tripod and, hand held, I attempted to “write” my partner’s name using nothing but create sculpture and pieces of performance art. From 1976 to 1980 Staller roamed the dark streets
the moonshine and the movement of the camera in my hand, and I had success. As soon as I of New York City creating light painting photographs. Eric’s Light Drawing series could be the very first
returned home, I adopted the same principles but with torches, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” Light Art Performance Photographs ever created. It could be argued that Man Ray’s “Space Writing”
Ever since that moment Michael has had great success with light painting photography, he has series were the first light art performance pieces but there is no doubt that Staller’s images such as
created images for several commercial clients and been published in numerous magazines Light Tubes, Happy Street, and Technicolor Torsos all envoke elements of performance art. In the late
1970’s staller set up his camera, open the shutter, and moved throughout the frame creating some
amazing light painting photographs. Eric’s Light Drawings series is one of the most influential series
on light painters today.
Aurora Crowley Jadikan
Light panting photographer Aurora Crowley has been capturing light for more than 14 years. He was Light Painting Photographer Guilhem Nicolas, also known as Jadikan-LP, has experimented with long
doing hair, makeup, and styling on a photo shoot in 1996 when his good friend, and fellow artist, exposure photography for many years; in 2008 he discovered light painting photography and has
Patrick Rochon introduced him to light painting photography. Aurora was immediately inspired, as been hooked ever since. Jadikan is a Malaysian word that mean “to create or transform”. Guilhem
soon as he got home that night he began to create his imagery. Aurora focuses his photography work wants his work to bring a transformation to his viewers. He wants to convey that we are all light and
on the world of high fashion, he shoots exquisite light paintings of some of the world’s most beautiful that we are all capable of creating light art. Guilhem is known for being a bit mysterious and secretive
people. You might look at his images and think he doesnt have bad days, but you would be wrong. On in his process and with the tools that he uses to create his light painting images. He enjoys shooting
Aurora’s first ever light painting shoot for a big designer his camera locked up, Aurora says this about a wide variety of subjects, everything from the human form to architecture. Guilhem lives in France
the incident “I was shooting film with a medium format camera and the shutter locked up, which then where he creates most of his light painting work. He recently had the opportunity to travel to Nepal
I started to rip the shutter out in front of the client with a pair of needle nose pliers”. Energy is Auro- where he paid tribute to one of his favorite street artist, Space Invader, with a light painting photo-
ra’s main source of inspiration he says this of a trip to Australia in 1997, graph titled “Tribute to Space Invader”
Equipments
A variety of light sources can be used, ranging from simple flashlights to dedicated devices like the 3. Set your camera to Manual mode if it’s a DSLR, and
Hosemaster, which uses a fiber optic light pen. Other sources of light including candles, matches, make the shutter speed 30 seconds(looks like this on the
fireworks, lighter flints, glowsticks, and Poi are also popular. screen for Canon: 30”), or have a friend help and set it to
A tripod is usually necessary due to the long exposure times involved. Alternatively, the camera BULB mode. BULB mode allows for the shutter to stay open
may be placed on or braced against a table or other solid support. A shutter release cable or self for as long as the trigger is pushed. A longer shutter speed
timer is generally employed in order to minimize camera shake. Color gels can also be used to color means more time that light is allowed in through the lens.
the light sources.
Some light painters make their own dedicated devices to create light trails over the photo back-
ground; this can include computer-controlled devices. This Arduino controlled LED array can render
images that could not be made by drawing in the air with a single light source alone.

How to Create Light Graffiti Photography 4.Set your ISO to one hundred or two hundred, depending
on the brightness of the room you are in.

1. Get a flashlight, glow stick, or something that provides

colored or non-colored light. One of the newest creations is
a pixel stick. Be sure to check them out!

5. Set your Aperture (or f/stop) to 5.6. A lower aperture

means more amount of light entering into the lens. The
higher the aperture, the less light.

2. Go into a totally dark room. A bedroom with a kind of

high bed or table would help as a tripod. Or a real tripod.

6. Put it on a two second timer so you have time to get in

front of the lens, or have a friend press the shutter button
or do the pattern..
 Few of my works

7. Face the flashlight at the lens, and start writing, drawing,

or doodling your design.

8. When the shutter opens, you have thirty seconds (or

however long your friend decides, if using BULB mode) to
write. When the shutter goes off, check out your master-
piece! This can also be done with sparklers, lightening, or
highway photography with blurred head and tail lights.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my contributing friends for their help. Without their amazing help, none of this
would have been possible.

Very special thanks to my those who helped with the book : Maidstone Titans, MadhiDinesh Photogra-
phy, Thakuri.co, UnkFew crew, MdotS Bhujel, MikkuFly, Asim malla and Dinesh Thapa. I’d also like to
thank Deliahly for her technical expertis and Benji hang for his thoughts, Apologies to all those who I
haven’t been able to include but without your unfailing support, this would not have been possible.

Picture Credits
All pictures were supplied or taken by the artists themselves.