Blog Post: Sophia Kokores

One day while desperately looking for graffiti to photograph (my project had not been going well) I came across a small alley way covered in graffiti. I was on my way home feeling discouraged by the prospect of my topic and I was not expecting to find something like this. I pulled my car up and got out to take photographs. There was no one else around. I became a little nervous because it felt eerily deserted. Every wall was graffiti-ed, there was a garbage can covered in graffiti art, and what looked to be someone’s home with a graffiti-ed sign “Koko” hanging from it. There was a locked gate in front of the stairs that led both downstairs and upstairs and behind the gate were piles of trash against more graffiti-ed walls. There was also a couch outside the gate up against a great mural of graffiti. The couch looked comfortable and yet it was graffiti-ed too! It was a very aesthetically stimulating place to say the least. I quickly snapped photos nervously looking around for people. I felt out of place and not just because I was in South Central LA but because there was no one else around.

I jumped back in my car and turned the corner only to find three artists in the act of graffiti-ing! This was what I had needed all semester! I was by myself so instead of immediately screeching to a stop to take photos, I slowly drove by scoping it out. The artists looked at me both suspiciously and with smiles. I pulled around the corner and waited in the car until I could gather the courage to approach them by myself. What if they thought I was a cop? What if they were dangerous themselves? What if they weren’t dangerous but they just didn’t trust me to take photos and then my own chance to get this was gone. I stayed in my car, pulled up to the artists and asked them if I could take pictures. I told them I wasn’t here to get them in trouble and I appreciated what they were doing. To my surprise, they welcomed me and were very interested in my project. I was still nervous, I wish I could have shook it off but I just felt very uncomfortable (as I would anywhere invading someone’s space). I kept my distance while taking photos, but wanted them to think I was calm and interested in what they were doing. I swallowed my nervousness and attempted to engage in conversation with them. They seemed more interested in what I was doing. They thought I was a professional photographer even with my amateur point and shoot camera. I probably didn’t get the best photos that day, but I most certainly got the best experience.

Two weeks later I went back to that alley way with three male friends to take photos of them sitting on the couch. To my dismay, the couch wasn’t there anymore. Just out of curiosity I peeped around the corner to see if the artists were back. They were! This time there were about six of them, two people (one of which was a girl) sketching, one on the ladder spraying a design up high, one spraying the wall and the other looking at the whole picture from across the street. They were a team. I approached them again reminding them of who I was. Luckily, they allowed me to take picture of them again, although this time they were more shy. I had to ask and encourage them to pose for photos. I later found out that it was because I was with three males. This made them a little suspicious because when I was exchanging email addresses one of the guys asked me if I was a cop. He didn’t ask me this the first time, so obviously the presence of three males made them uncomfortable, and rightfully so.

In response to another student’s post about the “script-edness” of photography, yes I do believe photos can be staged or produced, not exact replicas of the image or issue in action. In fact, some of my photos were staged in that I asked the subject(s) to smile, to turn a certain direction, or to pretend to do something. Sometimes, I had the end goal in mind rather than the process or the candidness of the activity in mind. Sometimes this can ruin the photo and other times it makes the photo. For photographic empowerment, at least for me, it was about the experience of taking the photos, of interacting with complete strangers, of having the courage to ask them to pose rather than the end result. This project was supposed to be about my perspective of graffiti in LA, and my interactions with these kind artists was most certainly the turning point of it. So, in the end, it’s not so much that some of my photos were “staged”, it’s more that each of these photos has a story behind it (whether that story involves a “stage” or not)- and afterall, isn’t that the point of participatory photography?

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