It's always nice when people come to Rome and visit, so when Parisian street artist 'Ender was coming into town, we got to meet up and I photographed him making his first paste up in the city.  I was amazed to find out that he's only been doing this for a year after having been a lover of street art his whole life.  He had a great Romulus and Remus poster just for Rome, and you can bet I'll be snapping a pic of that too once it's up.

Photos from a fresh pasteup I shot on Friday night in Rome, when Mr. Klevra and Omino71 put up this piece by Iranian artist A1One (who Arden did a great interview with) that was customized by them. More photos after the jump.

At the same time I photographed Omino71 and Mr.Klevra pasting up a piece by Zilda in Rome, Zilda was returning the favor by pasting up one of their pieces in Paris. The voyage for this poster was a long one, starting in May when I photographed it as part of an art installation Omino71 and Mr. Klevra did in the Garbatella neighborhood of Rome. These collaborations have given birth to something we're calling E!kOn proJeKt....stay tuned for more in 2010.

Excuse the bit of self-promotion, but February 18 I'll be opening an exhibit in Rome about the street art and photography project I've been working on with Roman artists Mr. Klevra and Omino71 over the past few months.  During the opening tomorrow night they'll be painting a huge 4 m x 3 m poster and people will be allowed to tag, sticker, paint a portion of the poster as well, which will then be pasted up inside.  They'll also be a projection of my photography of the project on several large screens, so come by and check it out if you are in Rome.

A small excerpt from the catalog I created (check it out below, in both Italian and English) explains the process of EikonprOJeKt and how it started:

"I first met Mr.Klevra while photographing a live painting performanceand, by chance, I photographed one of Omino71’s icons on the street. Then they invited me to document their first public installation, which I mentioned before, and participate in a group exhibition organized by StickMyWorld. It was for that exhibition that I printed a black and white poster depicting one of their posters hanging in the sun in a courtyard Garbatella, but I couldn’t use it due to rain and so I told them to keep it and paint it. It ended up coming out so well that we decided paste it up and EikonprOJeKt was born.  Ever since I photograph them whenever they go out to paste up their posters and from those photos I chose the one that I like best and which gives an idea of the urban context where the poster was attached. I work with the image in Photoshop to give it more graphic style and create the black and white image for the new poster. The newly created image gets printed out with a plotter, repainted by them, and hung back out on the street in a different urban setting, which I also photograph, starting the whole cycle over again. So we end up with a poster made from a picture of another poster, which is created from a picture of another poster…."

I'm back in Rome and back to photographing, so wanted to put up a photo of a project that I'm participating in. For more info on the image above, check out my post on Rome Photo Blog.

An incredible artist from Rennes, France, I discovered Jeremica through Zilda and love his newest series, "Brouillard hurmain on the street."

"Why the street? Because the common man belongs to it. Creating in the studio is only part of the pictorial universe that I explore. And like my friend Zilda tells me, paintings which remain in the workshop do not live as long as those that live on the streets, which cause the reaction of passers by." - Jeremica

Mac / Retna, originally uploaded by runtoline.

Never get tired of this one..it's just too well done!

Sten and Lex at Rising Love, originally uploaded by romephotoblog.

New piece by Sten and Lex at Rising Love in Rome (via delle Conce 14). Part of an event done at the club in conjunction with the art gallery Love and Dissent. Read more about it over at RomePhotoBlog.

An other story from Romephotoblog I couldn't resist sharing with you all:

"Some of you may remember the amazing piece of street art I shot this summer depicting Toto. Through a little research I found the artist, Zilda, a Frenchman who, like myself, was struck with a love for Rome after having lived here. From that point forward we've written back and forth and my friends and sometimes collaborators Mr. Klevra and Omino71 even sent one of their posters to Zilda in France for him to paste up for them. Now it was time for them to return the favor. Much like myself, Vinz, owner of a new bar in Pigneto called Oblomov, spotted the Toto, tracked down Zilda and asked if he would created something for the bar. Proving that he's not only talented, but very generous, Zilda agreed."

Read the full story @ Romephotoblog!