More than 15 years ago, while still working in the financial sector, travelling mainly across Latin America, my passion for photography woke up again. The question of what, where, how, etc. came up, in other words, the decision to develop long term projects, being the first one capturing murals, also often combining that with my business travels.

So, this web page intends to present a limited selection of what my eye did capture along the years and various travels and hopefully continues to do so. Street art, i.a. murals, graffiti, is one of my favourite subjects to photograph, thus this page will present many of those, while having also a section for - so to speak - "random things” i.a. landscape photography and some other ideas. The latter due to my other passion: traveling on a motorbike.

Now, “street art” includes any expression of art in public spaces. It includes murals, graffiti in its various forms as well as other techniques such as “sticker art” (decals stuck on walls, etc.), “stencils” (graffiti using stencils), “scrachiti” (scratching hard surfaces), “cut-outs” (literally creating the work from cuts), collages, etc. Interesting point is that many artists generally remain anonymous or are only known to small, close, like-minded circles. Some are well known, even have their own gallery or expose in galleries, etc.

I see in this art a form of expression of the human being, which ranges from perhaps images for merely aesthetic purpose – very valid and it beautifies environments, actually - to other images with a deep message of social and political content. In other words, walls that speak and reflect current events, problems, protests, etc. 

Now, the above is not really something new if we think about the hieroglyphs made in caves by our ancestors, or in the frescoes. Likewise, the temporal and ephemeral nature of murals – especially if on the street subject to intervention, weather, etc. - makes it fascinating. The ultimate purpose of this page is hopefully to contribute in seeing this as an art, respect it, really stop and see it and not just “walk by”, and reflect on it. 

Nikolaus Lerner

Contact: nplerner@yahoo.com