Miami was sunny and warm all weekend! New York had two snow-related car pileups overnight and a two-hour snow/sleet delay for schools this morning.
Thus we explain the attraction of an annual art circus that swims through the balmy Miami streets and fairs and beaches in early December called Art Basel. Each year it is better and worse than the year before, depending on who you got to dance with, or how much money you made, or how many walls you painted.
For Street Art there is now a bit more glam and glitz than in the past as the circling investors/collectors/brands are poised to ponder and plunder the possibilities presented – and there are the looky loos with cell cameras clicking, posing with friends and sometimes the artist if you are lucky. And there is still the basic pleasure of hitting up a wall and hanging out with your friends regardless of who sees it or not.
But hopefully somebody sees it.
CFYW/Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)
For photographer Geoff Hargadon the pilgrimage is one more art fair, and one more opportunity to get off the beaten path to see what’s going on in the margins. An observer of behavior and communications and anthropological behaviors, Geoff captures some of the art on the walls, sure, but he also is looking at the trappings and the detritus and associated meanings.
“I don’t see any sense in taking pictures of all the stuff that had already been shot by the rest of the world,” says Hargadon of these fresh shots from Miami that he shares with BSA readers today. “I was trying to capture the spirit and the chaos of the street scene in a different way while being true to the art, the artists and their work.”