Interview with Street Art Photographer David Skinner

Since the Brisbane Street Art festival (“BSA Fest”) became an annual event, there has been an explosion of eye-catching murals around Brisbane in addition to the classics that have been around for years prior. Here we speak to prolific local and international photographer David Skinner who’s Insta-worthy shots are an ode to this city’s captivating street art scene, as well as capturing the essence of murals from other destinations.

Who is behind @dkjtravelandphotography, and how long have you been a photographer?

My name is David Skinner and our page is named after the initials of myself, wife (Katrina) and son (Joel) and our love of travel and photography (lots of thought put into the name….)

I have been a keen photographer since leaving school and worked for a photography retailer before changing direction and working in legal. I've always enjoyed taking photos from using 35mm film through to digital photography and now for ease regularly use a combination of my Canon and my trusty iPhone (sorry to all those professional photographers out there).

I like the quote by Henri Cartier-Bresson "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" and think after taking so many photos during our travels that hopefully some are worth sharing on our website and social media (links below):

https://dkjtravelandphotography.weebly.com/

@DKJTRAVELANDPHOTOGRAPHY Instagram

@DKJTRAVELANDPHOTOGRAPHY Facebook

What is it about photography that you love?

I love to capture moments and places, as you never know if you will get the opportunity to visit them again. It’s a great way to remember priceless moments with family and friends, remember places and events, that you can revisit through the photos whenever you choose (especially with the way we now take and capture photos).

How did you get into capturing Street Art, and why?

I have always been interested in streetart when we have come across it on our travels. A few years ago I decided over a Christmas break to create our website, and then decided to join Instagram – this was a real learning experience as initially I focused on travel photos, then began discovering more and more streetart as we enjoyed visiting different areas of Brisbane and its surrounds. I found that our Instagram followers seemed to like the streetart photos and so I started to become a bit of a street art hunter and follow a lot of artists in Australia and around the world. This led to becoming a member of @graffiti_n_wallart and a contributor to @streetartcities Brisbane page https://brisbane.streetartcities.com/

With the Brisbane Street Art Festival starting in 2016 held over 25 locations across Brisbane and showcasing over 50 artists, this produced some stunning artworks across the city and is now an annual event with over 200 artists in 2018 providing us with even more opportunity to capture local street art with artists such as Sofles, Drapl and Treazy, Fuzeillear, Gus Eagleton, Kenji Chai and Said Dokins creating works of art around the city. We are looking forward to its return in May 2019.

We also recently visited Toowoomba home to First Coat International Art Festival (from 2014-2017) and have recently become a contributor to https://toowoomba-city-qld.streetartcities.com this is a must visit city if interested in street art with artists such as Matt Adnate, Alex Lehours, Beastman, Claire Foxton, Drapl & Treas, Fintan Magee, Frank & Mimi, Fuzeillear, Gimiks Born, Lisa King and Vans the Omega to name a few having created amazing murals.

Also visiting London and Manchester last year, it was a real eye opener on how prolific streetart had become in both those cities. We were also fortunate to have our photos featured by some amazing streetart pages like @graffiti_n_wallart @jj_urbanart, @urbanvibescommuntiy, @streetartdaily, @rsa_graffiti, @tv_streetart_

Who are your favourite street artists or artists in general?

This is a hard one to answer as we try to appreciate the artistry of all the artists we are fortunate to see work by. We are very fortunate in Brisbane and Australia to have such a high calibre of artists including Matt Adnate, Sofles, Drapl, Fintan Magee, Gus Eagleton, Vans the Omega, Lisa King, Rone, Guido van Helten, Claire Foxton and Gimiks Born.

Overseas artists we are huge fans of include My Dog Sighs, Zabou, The Postman Art, Tank Patrol, Dan Kitchener.

On that note, @dkjtravelandphotography's list of must see Brisbane Street Art and their locations!

In no particular order:

1.

Artist: Guido van Helten

Location: Boundary Street, Brisbane