Context - Dan Kitchener graffiti

Context

There is some great graffiti about these days all over the world and some artists move between cultures and cities easily. It was therefore a pleasure to see that Dan Kitchener, a world renowned street artist, was in Hull and painting the side of the King Billy pub. This is a freehand spray painting. The position is perfect and can be seen by all the traffic passing by on the A63. 

So it was inevitable that I would go and take some pictures there. This presented a couple of challenges. Firstly there is a large advertising hoarding/fence which separates the mural from the pavement. This makes it impossible to gain a top to bottom view. However I can quite understand the desire to protect this lovely work from passing oiks. 

The second challenge, which is linked to the first, is to give the picture context within the photograph. By that I mean that to only replicate the work seems like using some else's graft to make a photograph and claim the credit. Showing the scale and surroundings gives far more context to the finished work.

The first challenge was partially overcome by a couple of grey metal boxes which (I assume) carry some electrical equipment for the nearby traffic control lights. Standing on them meant that I could achieve some sense of the whole while also squeezing in the statue of King Billy on the far right of the picture as well as giving a sense of scale with the street light. A conversion of this particular picture to mono served it well.

The next two pictures I left in colour, saturating them slightly as the day had been very grey. In one I show the tower of Hull Minster which I hope gives both a sense of place and a sense of old and new. The second favours a shot which again gives context through including the pub frontage. In both the hoarding is inevitably present as is the phenomenal amount of road signage and furniture. I would have liked to have some people gazing up at it but having hung about for half an hour there was no-one about. I'll have to return at a busier time...

You can see more of Dan Kitchener's work here :- https://www.dankitchener.com/