study (disappearing sky)

remember rigo23's sky? the big mural that used to be across minna from sfmoma.


i loved that mural. bold. simple. clever. fun. visual space claimed for art (not advertising). when i first saw the crane (from the construction of the paramount) blocking the sky, i took a photo. seemed emblematic of the time. the sky was full of construction cranes (still is).

i decided to make a photo study of the disappearance of sky. and, its sibling ground. the sky study has eight primary photos which show what happened to sky from april 2000 through september 2003 (the last sighting).

view the slideshow? or the set?

the study also includes photo constructions.

(see it bigger?)

i like physically piecing together photographic prints. additional detail photos and photo constructions from the study are here.

i met rigo23 along the way.


it was one of those perfect moments. i had my tripod set up and was working on photographing the concomitant destruction of the ground mural. i saw rigo taking pictures. he came up and introduced himself. he liked my project. i shared my photos. we became friends.

one of my projects as a photographer has been documenting street art. i use a medium format camera (among others). i pay attention to lighting, framing. i return and rephotograph work - sometimes repeatedly - until i get something that i think is sufficient (or the work has been destroyed). the previously blogged kilgallen and mcgee from the lacma parking garage is a good example. i also recorded most of os gemeos work in san francisco from a few years back (the first thirteen in the linked set are from sf). most have now been painted over. with this work, my policy is to make the work available if the artists want to use it (for books or whatever).

i do not think of this documentation work as my "art." instead, it is part of a somewhat preservationist mission to make sure we have good documentation of amazing work that is somewhat ephemeral.

i also work on my own "art" as a photographer. currently online, i have my ongoing study of san francisco from 2006 and another from before. i also have another study called rest in peace. (i have more online and off)

my disappearing sky and disappearing ground studies are somewhat of a hybrid. they document rigo's murals. and, they add through documentation over more than three years. in thinking about this for some time, i am comfortable that the studies are sufficiently transformative for me to think of them as my "art."

i would like to show this work in a gallery. rigo is ok with this. prints are 20x20 (i think; could go 30x30 or 40x40). anyone interested?