Digbeth graffiti Birmingham part 1

I stopped documenting graffiti in Manchester because I realized it doesn’t compare to what I see in Birmingham. Much of the graffiti in Manchester is just tags or random letters on a wall—it’s not the kind of street art I want to see. In my opinion, Birmingham has the best graffiti.

A few years ago, I made this statement privately on my Facebook wall, but some jealous graffiti artists from Rochdale took issue with it and caused trouble. One of them claimed I had no right to criticize Manchester’s graffiti because I’m "just a photographer" and not a painter or writer. But that argument is completely illogical. Film critics don’t make movies, and music critics don’t produce albums—yet they still critique them. The idea that I can’t criticize bad graffiti simply because I document it rather than create it makes no sense.

They know they can’t create anything as good as the artworks I see in Birmingham. That’s why they got so defensive. I’d rather focus on the West Midlands, Leicester, and Bristol, where the street art is actually worth documenting.