Graffiti Documenters
The streets are a forever changing tapestry for graffiti and with people covering up & the buff man, sometimes pieces are lost. Surviving only in the pictures of those documenting the scene. Graffiti documenters have been around as long as graffiti itself and their work is service in itself. From the well known like, Martha Cooper to the local heroes maintaining the gallery of your scene over the years. Here in Scotland we are lucky to have a few dedicated Documenters and here are some
Graff N Vandal
Graff N Vandal is a platform focused on graffiti and art from the streets. It dedicates itself to documenting Scottish graffiti and its scene. Sharing photos and videos of the work they come across. They also share a plethora of videos exploring the culture and its different facets including styles, products, and events. They are keen to spotlight local artists and support the people who spend their life in this subculture.
Swish Fish
“I’ve always liked taking photos and, as someone with no traditional artistic ability, it allows me to translate what is in my head to a screen or print. The darkroom is my happy place.
Cities are what does it for me: buildings, angles, people, and stuff painted on walls. I’ve been lucky to do lots of travel have found that seeking out the corners where graffiti is always takes you somewhere interesting.
I’d not been taking so many digital photos for a few years, and then covid came along. To keep myself from going crazy I started walking all over Aberdeen, just as there seemed to be an explosion of good graffiti. Now I’m out all the time and love documenting what Aberdeen has to show.
Personally, I most enjoy photographing good pieces that have been put up in very public or tricky places, where there is a risk (be it legal or injury or both) and no expectation that it will stay there. This to me is the purest form of art, art for art’s sake, and I love being able to capture it in (hopefully) an interesting way.”
Granite City Graff
“I’m a graffiti documenter from the Aberdeen area. I started my page back in April 2023 as a way to preserve the works of artists who paint in Aberdeen. For a while before starting my page, I would scroll through countless old posts on Flickr to see what the scene looked like before I took an interest in it. I figured that in a few years down the line, people much like myself would want to see some of the older work that came before them, and so I began taking photos of as much graffiti as I could find and uploading it to my page.”
