Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal is a photographic work documenting the life and work of Europe’s most celebrated street artists. In keeping with the tradition of the great urban artists Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant and Bruce Davidson, who documented New York’s subway graffi ti in the 1970s and 1980s, Alex Fakso has put Europe and its graffiti artists on the map. Fakso’s need to capture the graffiti artists’ lifestyle, world and emotions during their act of creation stems in part from a personal desire to preserve a memory of his graffiti, voicing, through the engaging power of his photographs, an underground world, a world that is often despised and blamed. His extraordinary ability in mastering the art of light, composition and technique contributes to the deployment of a vivid narrative. Graffiti art, a life dimension inspired by ideals of transgression and rebellion, is rendered by a keen use of the framing, of colour and of contrast between light and shadow. A real journey into urban culture through the lens of one of Europe’s most promising visual artists.