Photo Gallery Assignment

 Graffiti can be well-liked/appreciated or disliked/ annoying to most people. Regardless, for Vancouver, it is essentially everywhere, as it is number 56 in top 99 most popular cities for Graffiti, which is higher than Oakland California, which is notorious for its plethora amount of vandalism/ Graffiti. 

In most major cities in Canada, Graffiti is mainly seen at skateparks (as shown above) and a few select Abandoned buildings. Vancouver however, it is arguably everywhere you go, it can be seen in alleyways, on those pure white cube trucks, storefronts, and even people's vacant properties like their garages.

The owner attempted to paint over the Spray paint but it is still seen faintly.

"Why is Graffiti a thing?" Vandalism is extremely prominent in major, densely populated cities and Graffiti specifically has evolved into a way of protest and rebellion, some feel it's important and valid, while others feel it is pointless and unfair. Both sides have valid points, I feel in certain scenarios it looks tacky and it's extremely unfair to ruin people's personal property just because, regardless if it is visually appealing or portraying a message you feel is important.

This entire alley was riddled with graffiti

Graffiti in Vancouver compared to other cities is immensely prominent and not even just quantity-wise its definite scale is immense as well, as you will see entire Leviathan-sized portraits scaling large pieces of architecture, being extremely detailed and/or profound. 

This one piece I captured stretched along an entire alleyway of stores and was roughly 20-30 meters long. The piece was of a train station filled with black figures and realistic-looking trains with smoke and pillars (I wasn't able to get more as an employee was getting upset with me taking photos of the back of their business). Love it or hate it, the artist seem to capture their goal by creating this controversial way to demonstrate artistic talent. It is seen by everyone, affects the majority of people in some type of way, is talked about consistently and is here to stay. As it has been a thing since the early 1960s and has consistently stayed relevant and is only growing in popularity despite heavy legal backlash. 

Relevant links 

• https://www.bombingscience.com/top-99-cities-for-graffiti-art/
•  http://journeyforevermag.com/typesofgraffiti#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20graffiti&text=Modern%20graffiti%20appeared%20in%20Philadelphia,father%20of%20modern%20day%20graffiti.