Faces of Barcelona No. 1

By Mark Kaufman

Some more from my recent trip to Spain. Most people take loads of pictures of themselves in front of iconic structures, beautiful sunsets, interesting cultural events…I do the same thing, but what I also love to do when in Rome or any other city for that matter is to shoot the street art and grafitti. Happily Barcelona was a treasure trove of interesting illustration and artwork. Amazingly, unlike any other city I have ever been in taggers and street artists DO NOT TAG BUILDINGS. I repeat buildings are not tagged, at least in the parts of town I ambled through, metal security gates, yes, metal window grates, yes, screens, metal phone boxes and electricity boxes, yes, yes and yes. I do not know why the bricks and mortar and stone of the historic buildings themselves were not tainted by grafitti, but they were 99.9% clean and devoid of markers and paint. Is it a respect for the architectural heritage or is it really stiff jail time, I wish I knew the answer. Fascinating. What I did find were alot of interesting drawings, stickers, stencils and spray jobs of heads and faces. I took alot of photos and will post a bunch. If anyone knows who the artists are please let me know.