As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Christian Omodeo is an art historian, art critic, book collector, and streetwise diplomat at Le Grand Jeu, the cultivated webzine and urban art association. This year Christian was one of three curators for “Street art Banksy & Co. The urban state of mind” at Museum Palazzo Pepoli in Bologna, Italy, which he refers to as “one of the biggest retrospective ever dedicated to graffiti & street art, with more or less 300 artworks, photos, videos, documents coming both from Europe and US, and belonging to public and private collections.”  It also sparked some controversy, a counter exhibition, and many heated conversations.

Today Christian shares with us the work of a graffiti photographer from Rome.

Title: A writer is using a fire extinguisher against security guard to escape easier in a trainline tunnel
Location: Rome, Italy
Date: 2016
Photo:Valerio Polici 

I finally met Valerio Polici a few weeks ago, during Paris Photo. He was there to present his first artist’s book, Ergo Sum, that is actually part of my top ten 2016 books. Valerio, like the French Sylvain Largot, represents this new generation of photographers who are looking for different ways of portraying the 2010s graffiti culture. While looking at Ergo Sum, I stopped in front of A writer is using a fire extinguisher against security guard to escape easier in a trainline tunnel, because this photo from 2013 summarizes this attempt to show graffiti as an individualist fight for a right to the city.

My wish for 2017? More democracy, less walls.

But also more sun, less rain.

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