Street Art as Steve Sees It

Posted on April 29, 2009 
Filed Under Art, Design, Lifestyle, Shopping

In February, culturcosm covered the release party for Bay Area Graffiti, a colorful and visually arresting book created by local photographer Steve Rotman, with the help of designer Chris Brennan. It has since garnered quite a bit of attention in the local press, including an arts and entertainment feature story on ABC-7 News. We’re very excited to catch up with Steve in an exclusive interview to discuss his work and the release of his newest book San Francisco Street Art, the latest in the Prestel street art series with previous installments showcasing London, Paris, Berlin and Brooklyn.

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What is the difference between street art and graffiti—what distinctions might people recognize when comparing your two books?

There is a distinction but it’s not an easy one to identify. I would say street art includes things like stencils, murals, paste-ups, posters, stickers, whereas graffiti is spray paint-based with some markers used for tags. Where graffiti is more about “getting up” and writing your name, street art tends to be a little more political, a little more message-driven, a little more accessible to your average person—images that anyone can look at and appreciate and have a relationship with right away. Graffiti, for outsiders, tends to be sort of scary and unknown.

What unique aspect of the SF street art scene were you trying to capture in your new book, San Francisco Street Art?

There are a few specific areas in the city where you find it, and artists you’ll only find in the Bay Area—Eclair Acuda, Bigfoot, Cab, Neck Face, although he went to New York, Girafa certainly is only in the Bay Area. I’ve found that a lot of the street art is very playful here, it’s very whimsical, and some of the street art I’ve seen in other cities tends to take itself a little more seriously. A lot of the art in the book was created by out-of-towners—Os Gemeos from Brazil, a German graffiti artist named Dome, Swoon, an artist out of New York. I wanted to show that San Francisco is this international destination and we are very lucky to have these artists come and put their work on our walls. I think San Francisco does have that melting-pot quality.

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How did your first book, Bay Area Graffiti, a recent local best-seller, come about?

I became very passionate about it—I basically fell in love with graffiti. For years I shot landscape photos, and I’m quite proud of them, but the truth about landscape photography is that it’s jam-packed with amazingly talented people and it’s really hard to stand out. So I applied my understanding of landscape photography to graffiti photography. When I started shooting graffiti here, what amazed me was that nobody else was doing it because there was so much fabulous art I was seeing everywhere, every day. Over time I built this collection that I felt was really something different, and no one had put a book together. I couldn’t quite believe it because this area has such a rich tradition of graffiti and street art.

How were you able to gain the trust of the artists and build the relationships necessary to create Bay Area Graffiti?

I was posting photos online every day, I mean every day, seven days a week. I was completely obsessed. So graffiti writers were increasingly seeing my photos online, and many of them would write me by email because that’s a safe thing to do and little by little I developed relationships. Occasionally I would be in a graffiti yard taking photos and someone would come up and I would introduce myself. Once they met me, they found that I enjoyed what they were doing and really wasn’t out to get them in any way. So I developed a lot of strong relationships and one led to another. After three years of doing this I had developed enough of a connection to the community where I was able to reach just about everyone I wanted to reach.

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You were recently a guest on KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny as part of a discussion about graffiti in the city. What is it like for you to go from graffiti appreciator to advocate/activist?

I am a graffiti enthusiast and I’ve been shooting it all these years because I love it. I do think graffiti is often pilloried unfairly in the press and by some in the general public—there are all kinds of myths about it, many of which I find to be completely untrue. So on the one hand I’m promoting my work, but on the other hand I’m trying to share what I’ve learned about a culture that I think is valuable, and I think ought to be celebrated. I think the city’s response currently to graffiti is getting to be so Draconian and extreme that I want to balance that out a little if I can. Graffiti writers are anonymous and they can’t just go out and make these kinds of statements for fear of being identified and arrested. So I’m in a unique position in that I’m an outsider but I’ve come to know the culture extremely well, and the books give me a platform to say what I think about it.

The turn-out for the Bay Area Graffiti book release party at 111 Minna in February was phenomenal and diverse. What was your reaction to that response?

I expected there to be about a hundred people at that thing, and I’m estimating there were four to five hundred people who showed up. I was just astounded. I was deeply flattered and deeply honored, and I don’t think they were all there for me. They were there for the art and for the community, coming together. I think it’s been a long time since the graffiti community here has had anything really to celebrate, and this was something to celebrate, so everybody showed up. It was completely friendly, people treated each other really well—all these guys sitting there exchanging stories and writing in each other’s books. It was terrific, it was a really moving experience for me.

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You continue to regularly post photos on your Flickr feed, which has a substantial viewership with thousands of hits every day, and now you’ve published two books. What’s next?

I would love to keep doing my street art and graffiti photography if I can find some way to fund it. There used to be all these stickers around town that said “give me an arts grant” well, give me an arts grant! That would be a dream come true. I’d love to travel to other cities and shoot graffiti and street art. I have other book ideas that I would like to do. A gallery show is an interesting idea and there’s a bunch of other people who have encouraged me to do it. I think there are certainly galleries in the city that would be open to it—White Walls, Upper Playground, 111 Minna—so I’m hopeful that I can do that. I’m doing this because I’m very passionate about it. I think that comes through in my work. I hope it does.

The official San Francisco Street Art book release event is coming up Monday, May 11, 6:30-9 p.m. at Books Inc., 601 Van Ness, in San Francisco. Steve and several of the artists featured in the book will be discussing their work. Pick up both books while you’re there, or buy them online.

—Sara

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Comments

One Response to “Street Art as Steve Sees It”

  1. kay on April 29th, 2009 10:27 am

    steve, you’re awesome.
    great interview.

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