Email response to pictures of graffiti/art around Stroud being removed by the group moderator on Flickr.

I just sent this email to the moderator of :this group on Flickr:, (a group in which to post all pictures of Stroud), after he sent me this message:

Dear Luke,

Whilst I am not offended by the graf shots, there have been comments posted about you flooding the group with graf pics. You have just done it again - either you have not read the thread or you don't care. If you want to post pics to the stroud group please be a bit more discriminating - similar shots of the same graf are boring at best and you have already offended some people in the group. You are welcome to continue posting but please bear in mind the other people in the group. I have deleted from the group some of your pics to keep the peace, please don't take offence.

Best wishes,

David.


David,

Firstly, well done on realising my real name lol; some of my friends have had to ask me what 'lkwrnr' means as they haven't realised that it is actually my name!!

I am sorry if I have caused offence in the Stroud group; please accept my apologies on this somewhat sensitive topic, as I seem to have 'offended some people in the group'.

Please bear in mind that I am not a grafittiist, I merely take pictures of other people's work, and then upload them to Flickr. As all of the pictures have been taken in Stroud, I thought it would be OK to post all of them to the Stroud group. I have read the thread and I do care; as far as I can see, your 'About Stroud' section reads as follows:

'Express your Stroudness here, through pictures and comments.
You know this place is beautiful, quirky, and different from all other places. Lets show those shots.'

I believe that my photos of Stroud Graffiti portray this, as I view the pictures I have taken, and the subjects within them as 'art' in a loose sense, as opposed to the graffiti tags that are hideously scrawled over every wall. I recognise that several shots of the same piece of graffiti/art may be repetitive and boring, but I wish to defend my actions in terms of expressing some aspects of what I think represent Stroud.

I would also like to raise the point that I am confused as to how people can be offended over the pictures I have posted - are they offended over the content of the pictures, thinking that these hideous acts of vandalism that ruin their stereotypical view of their lovely town? Or are they offended that I have posted several shots of the same thing? The latter I can understand, and all I can say in my defence is that it is so much easier to drag all the pictures in one set and send them all to a group, rather than diligently picking some. If the people in your group hold the former view; then I believe they are contradicting the other thing I read on your group profile:

‘This group welcomes members who are happy living in a tolerant, liberal, multicultural society’.

I recognise that some people may not like seeing graffiti, even that some people may think all acts of graffiti are vandalism and hence that they are ugly, unwanted acts of intolerance with no reason behind them, but I am opposed to this view, and the view that the pictures I have posted are 'hideous acts of vandalism' as I wrote above.

Just to clarify: I think most of the pictures I posted to this group are works of art, by talented individuals; I certainly could never do something as impressive as the artist 'infinite' has. I believe that although they have vandalised someone’s property, the art they have produced is much more worthy and has much more reason to be on the buildings and on Flickr than an ugly scrawl of 'Disco' or 'Dub' with no artistic content or talent behind it. This is why I posted all of the pictures I have recently taken to the Stroud group.

In response to me 'flooding the group with graf[fiti] pics', I merely hold in my defence the ease of posting all pictures in a set to a particular group e.g. all pictures in my 'Stroud Graffiti' set to the 'Stroud' group . . .

I hope this email clarifies my viewpoint, whilst also defending my position and actions.

Lastly, may I say that I have not taken offence on you removing some of my pictures from the Stroud group for two reasons, one because you are the administrator and have that privilege to do so, which you have used responsively to keep the peace amongst the group members, but also (secondly) because you took the time to send me this email, for which I thank you.

I have taken the liberty of posting this email to the thread on the group forum in which one member has expressed their unrest about my photos, in the hope that this will explain my viewpoint, clear up any misunderstanding, and defend my actions, whilst apologising for any unnecessary stress this has caused.

Oh, in response to yercombe’s comment:
‘While neither for or against it.
What does it have to do with Stroud. There must be a more appropriate group to post this’
These photos are posted in the Stroud group because they are, in fact, taken in Stroud, as I suspect most, if not al, of the photos are. There are more appropriate groups for my Flickr photos to be in; if you care to look at my profile you will see that I have also sent the Stroud graffiti pictures to groups such as ‘Streetart’.

And in response to your comment Dave:

‘I put it down to the impetuousity [I assume you mean impetuosity] of youth.’ I hope that you and your group members are not judging me on the fact that because I am 17 and have taken pictures of graffiti around my town, I must be a graffitist/vandalist/hooligan/yob. I am not. I merely take pictures of things I like, respect, and am attracted to in a photographical sense, and upload them to Flickr. I then send them to groups that reflect the subject or the location of the photographs I have taken.

Best wishes also,
lkwrnr.