Rob Verger

I’ve loved Brazilian graffiti since I began photographing it in Sao Paulo in August of 2008. That project culminated in a slideshow for the Travel Channel’s website World Hum, but my passion for photographing it hasn’t abated. When I read in The New York Times that two famous Brazilian graffiti artists, Os Gêmios, had painted a mural in downtown New York City, I got on the subway and decided to check it out, and photograph it, for myself. (The accompanying slideshow to the Times story, by Justin Maxon, inspired me to take some of my own photographs.)

In photographing it, I tried to capture not just the beauty and colors of the mural on a large scale, but also the smaller, more intimate scenes depicted. I also wanted to photograph how people interacted with it: seemingly ignoring it as they walked past, or studying it closely.

And finally, the last photograph in the above slideshow comes from the subway nearby. As I was walking down the steps after photographing the mural, I took a photo of the interesting character standing at the entrance– I like that behind him is blue and white New York City-style graffiti, splashed on the wall in the background.