CAN TO CAMERAaction photography until 2009

Curated by Jasper van Es. Authors: Ruediger Glatz and Jasper van Es. Designer: Manuel Osterholt. Published by BALD BOOKS.

The photographers: Alex Fakso, Ruediger Glatz (ruedione), Philipp Friedrich (Ozkar) and Nils Mueller.

Why 2009: This timeline marks the last generation before smartphones and Instagram transformed graffiti documentation. After 2009 a trend emerged where many writers started to shoot graffiti actions themselves, making documentation widespread and commonplace. The photographers in this project worked with film and early digital cameras — archives that required commitment, technical skill and physical risk.

Dual identity: These weren't photojournalists observing from outside — they were writers documenting their own culture. They understood the risks, the codes, the techniques. The spray can created the art; the camera ensured it would outlive the buff, the weather, the inevitable erasure.

The archive: These photographs exist scattered across personal hard drives, deteriorating prints, defunct websites and forgotten collections. CAN TO CAMERA brings four dispersed archives into conversation — functioning as both cultural preservation and historical document.

Significance: Preserves a crucial but under-documented period in graffiti and photography history. The writer-photographer viewpoint is irreplaceable as this generation ages. Not nostalgia, but recovery of a visual language created before digital ubiquity. Four distinct archives reveal regional styles, varying approaches and the diversity of this underground practice.

Deliverables: A substantial archival volume combining photographer portfolios, action documentation, contextual essays, first-person accounts and visual chronology — alongside an immersive exhibition with large-scale prints, archival materials, vintage equipment and experiential elements.