All the photos of street art above come from Mitte, the central borough of Berlin. It’s the “capital” of Berlin, if you will. Around the backstreets of Mitte you find abandoned buildings filled covered in illegal art.
There’s some real creativity there, it’s refreshing compared to what we see here in San Francisco. Lots of paste, text, airbrushing, even mixed media. There’s a tinge of geekery to many pieces that you rarely see in the local scene.
But what impressed me the most was how well the artists integrated their pieces into the surroundings. For example, I didn’t even notice the mouse pointer until the forth or fifth time I walked past it. Or the “secret police” in the first image above, which was in and of itself quite secret as it was only visible from one spot.
The best art is the art that belongs where it is in some intangible, indescribable way. Which is to say my photos don’t just suck because I’m a shitty photographer — they suck because it’s not as good as seeing the art in person. And that’s the excuse I’m sticking with.