Graffiti, Paris 1945

This photograph of Parisian graffiti was taken by Brassai at an undetermined date. Brassai’s artistic project was rooted in the Parisian streets, and in particular, its night life. He documented the city's underbelly, but also things easily overlooked, such as graffiti. In this image, we see a face crudely carved into a wall. It seems the very act of making this image—of taking graffiti seriously as a subject—subverts the norms of the art world, which often overlooks the art of everyday life. The focus on something so ephemeral and easily destroyed raises questions about the art market itself. Can something like this, found on the street, have the same cultural value as a painting hung in a gallery? To understand the meaning of this image better, we might look at the history of street art and the institutions that have, or have not, supported it.