I hit up another graffiti spot recently. This time it was in Atlanta’s Cabbagetown neighborhood. These particular photos were taken in and around Krog Street Tunnel, which I had heard was a top spot in Atlanta for graffiti. The tunnel was definately covered in graffiti, however most of the graffiti was tags instead of murals. Walking through the tunnel was a little creepy. It was dimly lit and we almost expected someone to be sleeping in the place but it was empty when we walked through it. Being an amateur photographer, it was hard for me to get a lot of pictures in the tunnel itself because the lighting was so bad. Near the tunnel there was a lot of other graffiti around. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pictures.
Archive for the 'Atlanta' Category
22
Apr
Sticker art and posters
For those of you who have been reading my blog, you will remember that I paid a visit to Little Five Points near downtown Atlanta. While Little Five Points was a great place to find graffiti, it’s also a great place to find cool sticker art and posters. Stiocker art ranges from the seemingly pointless to advertising to political statements. Posters are usually just advertising a local event, but sometimes contain interesting pictures and wording. While I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked taking pictures, here are a few that I really enjoyed.
18
Apr
Atlanta graffiti
I’ve lived in Atlanta for most of my life, yet I don’t really know the city. Being a suburbanite, most of my recent experiences with the city itself consist of driving through it to get to the airport. Sad I know, but lately I’ve been determined to learn more about the city I call home. Now that my leg has healed and I can walk again, I decided to go to explore Little Five Points, not to be confused with Five Points, Five Points, 5 Pointz, or the Five Points.
The great thing about going to Little Five Points is that it’s a cool neighborhood, as well as a great spot to see some nice graffiti. So this past weekend, some friends and I decided to drive to Little Five Points and check things out. By the time we got there, we all happened to be starving.
We decided to eat at a burger place called The Vortex. On interesting thing about the restaurant (besides the giant skull that makes up the entrance) is that you have to be at least 18 years old to eat there. It has something to do with Georgia’s loony smoking ban in restaurants. Anyway, all of us decide to order a Coronary Bypass. It’s a burger with a half pound of beef, tomatoes lettuce, cheese, bacon, and a fried egg. It was quite good, although it was very hard to eat because it was so tall. Just trying to take a bite of the thing without the whole burger falling apart was an exact science. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.
After lunch we headed out with my camera to get some graffiti shots. We didn’t have to go far to find any. It was everywhere. This was somewhat unusual for me personally, since I live in a part of Atlanta where graffiti is nonexistent. I apologize for the angles on a few of these pictures. Some of the graffiti were in narrow alleys and it was hard to get a good shot.
A couple of years ago, the City of Atlanta decided to launch an advertising campaign. Coined Brand Atlanta, its goal was to promote tourism, promote local pride, and establish an identity for the city. The rationale for starting the promotional campaign was that when people think of Las Vegas they think “gambling,” and when people think of New Orleans they think “Katrina”, er “Mardi Gras”, but nothing comes to mind when people think of Atlanta.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love Atlanta and enjoy living here, but there isn’t anything about the city that gives it an identity. Sure we’ve got the world’s busiest airport and the headquarters of Coca-Cola, but who really cares about that? Now that’s not to say that there’s nothing to see in Atlanta, but nobody is going to visit Atlanta so that they can snap some pictures of the airport.
Anyway, the Brand Atlanta campaign has come up with a few gimmicks to promote the city. These include TV and radio commercials, billboard ads, and a contrived and very lame theme song. I encountered one of these promos while at the Atlanta airport. It was large banner hanging from the ceiling at the train station. I’m trying to figure out what message Atlanta is trying to send. That all men in Atlanta wear skirts?
In the city of Forest Park, a suburb of Atlanta, people are getting ticketed for leaving their cars unattended as they warm up in the morning. This appears to be another one of those “for-your-protection” laws, where the people who the law is supposedly protecting are the ones who get screwed. [digg=http://www.digg.com/politics/Atlanta_suburb_gives_citations_for_unattended_idling_cars]
Forest Park police are enforcing a Georgia law that makes it illegal for someone to leave a car unattended while it is idling. Its original purpose was to prevent cars from rolling away. Today, however, Forest Park is using the law under the guise of preventing car theft. Except that the potential victim of car theft is the one who gets slapped with a $168 fine. Fourteen people have been find since January. I guess this is what happens when the police don’t have anything important to do. Of course, an infinitely better idea would be to educate citizens rather than going around enforcing more draconian laws.
Our society is moving more and more towards abrogating citizens of all responsibility of everyday decision making. The state believes that you don’t have the capacity or even the right to make choices or risks with your own personal property. And apparently the state doesn’t think people are smart enough to know that there’s a risk to leaving one’s car unattended.
