ARTIST'S STATEMENT TASK: Linking personal work to critical constructs.

Benjamin Smith is a young, Documentary Photographer based in the North of England. Much of his work focuses on sub-cultures and individuals who choose to live outside of the dominant societal norms. In his ongoing series Aerosoul, Benjamin has spent several months following a number of Graffiti 'Writers' from Manchester and Leeds as they 'Bomb' the streets of their cities. 

Although the very nature of Graffiti directly challenges the ever present dichotomy of public-versus-private property/space, in recent years there has been a certain amount of cultural absorption. Caused largely by the proclivity of the marketing industry to raid the more dangerous elements of youth culture and partly by the hype surrounding a small, elite group of artists (Banksy, Swoon et al.), a notable shift in the perceived nature and status has occurred. This however seems inextricably linked to the market value and apparent equitability of a certain aesthetic trend, in short: commodification.

The Writers depicted in Aerosoul practice the earliest, most basic and least saleable form of Graffiti, namely tagging. Essentially the taking of space with a personalised graphic, symbol or nom de guerre, this personalisation of the urban environment stands diametrically opposed to the policies of privitisation, that remove the right of input into how the environment is constructed, from most of the population. To this end, Aerosoul tends not to fetishise the artwork of the protagonists but focuses instead, on the act itself, as the thing worthy or record and in so doing, seeks to question by extension, the globalised systems of capital.


The predominant use of an analogue medium can be seen as an intentional comment on the indexical nature of the  photographic document as record; providing a tactile and 'real' image that attests to the truth of both picture (without post production) and therefore, moment. However, the grainy, saturated and sometime soft qualities of many of the images in the series, although the results of practical implications, ground the feel in something more esoteric than mere physicality. The rough-and-ready aesthetics combined with the silhoettes and night time setting, encapsulate mood and atmosphere, as well as action.