12 Streets of Madrid
(2019)
The body of work, 12 Streets of Madrid, focuses on bringing to the attention of its audience the colourful and vibrant street art of Madrid, concentrating on Maximilian Braun quote of: “The need to document the art before it is washed away, cleaned up or painted over…In that way, the photographs of worldwide urban art live forever.” (Braun 2015).
In a world where it is difficult for creatives to be acknowledged or seen, the work aims to give these ephemeral murals their own and deserved platform by photographing them via analogue so that the documentation of them will be always be available; both as digital images and physical negatives, making these semi-permanent illustrations, permanent.
This project also aims to demonstrate how one creative can inspire another positively and consequently how this can lead to the work being exposed forever through photography.
The way in which the art is photographed focuses on both representing the carefully chosen location for the art to be displayed and viewed by the street artist, showing it in its context and how it might be seen by the viewer but also fixating on the intricate details of the illustrations which may not be given attention by the common flâneur of society, wandering through the streets.
The art captured within this project is from a total of twelve different streets from three different areas in Madrid.Houlton felt obliged to photograph them as they represent the artistic and thought-provoking personalities of the people of the city she was experiencing and living in and she wanted to give these artists’ credit; as they are willing to go to great lengths and potential danger to showcase their art in an urban landscape. Additionally, in recent years, it has been researched and discussed how street art is providing a positive impact in its surroundings. Mulcahy and Flessas from The London School of Economics and Political Science wrote an article claiming how: “attitudes are changing. Street art is increasingly seen as having commercial value, enhancing the cityscape, creating new local art markets, attracting tourists, and contributing to the gentrification of an area with the result that conventional ways of conceiving of street art have begun to pose new challenges to concepts of crime and property” (Mulcahy and Flessas 2015). This supports the photography project with a sense of purpose; as the photographs are contributing to exposing and giving the art the positive reception it needs.
In order to expand this project, I decided to make it into a zine and distribute them around the streets of Madrid to passers-by, in the locations which the photographs were taken. To read more about the full details of this event and the zine itself, you can visit my blog
Here is a photo of the zines made and a video flick-through - watch here:
