Old-school Obey / Giant Has a Posse sticker by Shepard Fairey, New York City.

© Ivan Corsa Photo - Street Art Photos

Photography gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
Music on our iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Sneakers of the Day: Adidas "Marun"

© Ivan Corsa Photo - Street Art Photos

Photography gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
Music on our iPod: Jay Z - "99 Problems"
Sneakers of the Day: A Bathing Ape "BAPESTAS"

Photography gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
Music on our iPod: Deerhoof - "+81"
Sneakers of the Day: Adidas "Marun"

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On our iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Sneakers on our feet: Adidas "Gazelle"

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On our iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Sneakers on our feet: Adidas "Gazelle"

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On our iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Sneakers on our feet: Adidas "Gazelle"

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On our iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Sneakers on our feet: Adidas "Gazelle"

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in the Way"
Kicks on our feet: Nike High-Tops

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in the Way"
Kicks on our feet: Nike High-Tops

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in the Way"
Kicks on our feet: Nike High-Tops

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in the Way"
Kicks on our feet: Nike High-Tops

Stickers, graff, a wheat-pasty image of a Flava' Flav doppelganger and an octopus by Lower East Side artist Marco. Love it, mate.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in My Way"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Marun"

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in My Way"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Marun"

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Keane - "Nothing in My Way"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Marun"

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: The Rakes - "22 Grand Job"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Marun"

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Beckenbauer" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Beckenbauer" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Beckenbauer" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
Kicks on our feet: Adidas "Beckenbauer" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah (Pretentious Mix)"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah (Pretentious Mix)"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah (Pretentious Mix)"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Massive ad-mural of Madonna for H&M is being painted on the side of a cast-iron lofts building in SoHo, New York City.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah (Pretentious Mix)"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Beck - "Hell Yes"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Beck - "Hell Yes"
Kicks on our feet: Puma "Easy Rider" Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Tosca - "Orozco"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Tosca - "Orozco"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Tosca - "Orozco"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Ivan Corsa Photo

Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Deerhoof - "Koneko"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers

Here's the detail shot of "Shapes." Not your average East Village-graf, "Shapes" is a stencil-like splatter-work of red paint and sans-serif letters in all-caps. While the artistry and style is neither "wild" nor "hip-hop" by the standard of traditional techniques, this is a highly distinctive and original tag. Even though it's small, you can't miss it on East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, a stretch of gentrified and expensive downtown Manhattan real-estate with practically zero graf but least a half-down Japanese restaurants.

Ivan Corsa Photo

And here's the wider, context shot of "Shapes."

Background Note
Not your average East Village-graf, "Shapes" is a stencil-like splatter-work of red paint and sans-serif letters in all-caps. While the artistry and style is neither "wild" nor "hip-hop" by the standard of traditional techniques, this is a highly distinctive and original tag. Even though it's small, you can't miss it on East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, a stretch of gentrified and expensive downtown Manhattan real-estate with practically zero graf but least a half-down Japanese restaurants.

Ivan Corsa Photo

And here is yet another photo of the Sony PSP "street art" ads in downtown New York City. Like how these are usually in pairs. The doe-eyed kids look partly inspired by Japanese manga comic books.

Background:
During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Here are some more shots of the Sony PSP "street art" ads in downtown New York City.

Background:
During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.

Ivan Corsa Photo

During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.

Ivan Corsa Photo

While we're on the subject of spaces and places in downtown Manhattan that are no more, here's a shot of the recently torn down Gaseteria gas station at the corner of Houston and Lafayette streets in Soho, New York City. More precisely, it's a picture of a billboard advertisement of the station at the station. We've always loved this sign because it's so obviously from a different stylistic era of advertising and retail signage. Even the messaging is quaint: "Thank you for making us #1" and "New York's 'House Brand'" are presented in an almost laughable, but endearing, way. Most of all, we love the design aesthetic and the illustration of the station itself, with bright yellow NYC taxis sitting at all the pumps. It's a big surprise that Gaseteria wasn't demolished to make room for new luxury apartments and condos (given the location, the land and air-rights alone are worth potentially tens of millions of dollars.) No, what replaced this old petrol stop was a new, shiny, modern service station of a well-known brand franchise.

Ivan Corsa Photo

It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Here's the context shot of the CourtTV billboard apartment building.

It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Here's a closer view of the windows on the Court TV billboard in Soho, New York City.

It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.

Ivan Corsa Photo

The New York City Apple Store in Soho resides in a former US Post Office building formerly called "Station A" in Soho. It's located in the heart of downtown Manhattan amid multi-million-dollar real estate in the form of lofts, apartments, retail spaces, creative offices and historic cast-iron architecture. Like those lofts that have been converted from former factory space, the Apple Store is an excellent example of the re-development and re-purposing of existing structure as new, mixed-use space.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Surface To Air (or Surface 2 Air) is an underground-ish creator's atelier, art gallery, event space and boutique all wrapped up into one at very central Paris address in a right-bank neighborhood near Les Halles. Here is a shot of the iron-shuttered, graf-scrawled storefront from across the lane. Like Colette a couple of kilometers away, Surface To Air is a small mecca of under-the-radar creative cool.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Here's a shot of some graphic design in the form of cool logo/symbols painted on the storefront of Surface To Air in Paris.

Surface To Air (or Surface 2 Air) is an underground-ish creator's atelier, art gallery, event space and boutique all wrapped up into one at very central Paris address in a right-bank neighborhood near Les Halles. Here is a shot of the iron-shuttered, graf-scrawled storefront from across the lane. Like Colette a couple of kilometers away, Surface To Air is a small mecca of under-the-radar creative cool.

Ivan Corsa Photo

This is a shot of the Surface To Air signage, a non-descript, sterile sans-serif logotype.

Surface To Air (or Surface 2 Air) is an underground-ish creator's atelier, art gallery, event space and boutique all wrapped up into one at very central Paris address in a right-bank neighborhood near Les Halles. Here is a shot of the iron-shuttered, graf-scrawled storefront from across the lane. Like Colette a couple of kilometers away, Surface To Air is a small mecca of under-the-radar creative cool.

Ivan Corsa Photo

This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Another shot of the clever use of scaffolding space by Digital Ink to advertise its business in New York.

This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.

Ivan Corsa Photo

One more shot of the clever use of scaffolding space by Digital Ink to advertise its business in New York.

This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.

Ivan Corsa Photo

A close-up shot of the awning and signage of the recently closed Pop Shop. The Shop, on Lafayette Street in Soho, New York City, was part of the legacy of late downtown artist Keith Haring. The shop was an emporium of all things Haring and an example of how licensing and merchandising of an artists body of work could be lucrative and continue to promote a the artist's work long after his death. In fact, Haring's iconic graffiti-inspired imagery was virtually a brand in and of itself. As is often the case with Manhattan real estate in neighborhoods that have changed dramatically through gentrification, leases property prices and rents skyrocket. The Pop Shop can no longer afford the landlord's new asking price on the lease of the current retail space. So long, Pop Shop.

Ivan Corsa Photo

The Pop Shop on Lafayette Street in Soho, New York City, was part of the legacy of late downtown artist Keith Haring. The shop was an emporium of all things Haring and an example of how licensing and merchandising of an artists body of work could be lucrative and continue to promote a the artist's work long after his death. In fact, Haring's iconic graffiti-inspired imagery was virtually a brand in and of itself. As is often the case with Manhattan real estate in neighborhoods that have changed dramatically through gentrification, leases property prices and rents skyrocket. The Pop Shop can no longer afford the landlord's new asking price on the lease of the current retail space. So long, Pop Shop.

Ivan Corsa Photo

A full-frontal shot of a green mailbox that his been bombed.

Fourth image in a series of four. Original text below.

Snapped this image of one of those nondescript green mailboxes covered with wheat-pastes, stickers and assorted graf. This side of the box has a couple of black-and-white artworks and a promotional sheet for a local band called New York City Smoke. You can find this mailbox on Prince St., between Crosby St. and Broadway in Soho, across the street from Dean & Deluca and surrounded by those downtown mega loft apartments.

Ivan Corsa Photos

Snapped this image of one of those nondescript green mailboxes covered with wheat-pastes, stickers and assorted graf. This side of the box has a couple of black-and-white artworks and a promotional sheet for a local band called New York City Smoke. You can find this mailbox on Prince St., between Crosby St. and Broadway in Soho, across the street from Dean & Deluca and surrounded by mega loft apartments.

Ivan Corsa Photos

This "secret" SoHo restaurant was outted this past summer by the New York times in a Style section article. Appearances can be misleading. The photo shows a small, no-frills Mexican diner and bdeli/bodega called The Corner La Esquina, but the real restaurant is behind and below the diner "front." To ge to the real La Esquina you must pass through an unmarked, non-descript door that looks like an employees-only portal to a storage room. Once past, you enter a totally different space, a quintessentially chic downtown restaurant and boite. La Esquina is at the interesection of Cleveland Place and Kenmare and Lafayette streets, a block south of Spring Street.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Here's the latest superlarge Calvin Klein billboard at Houston and Lafayette streets in Soho, New York. What more can we say? This ad is as sexed-up as all the other Calvin Klein ads that fill this space in lower Manhattan. Whether the advert is touting underwear, jeans or just the Calvin Klein brand, the titilation factor is always turned up to 11. The tenement building upon which this billboard screen hangs is probably a very valuable piece of Soho real estate given both its location and the adspace.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Previously we posted an a shot of an up by "Claw." The graf had the ubiquitous upturned cartoon-like ideogram of a paw and visible claws with a custom signifier, which is unqiue to each instance of this writer's graf. In this case, the added signifier was "F.C." So resurrected here is a clever switch-up on this concept: the main up is "F.C"" and the signifier is "Claw" rendered like a handwritten signature in small, black lettering.

Ivan Corsa Photo

Our girl "Claw" strikes again. This time with the "F.C." signature. Go figure. This up is on a wall along Crobsy Street, the last of the great, dirty SoHo backstreets. Though this canyon-like lane looks largely untouched by the rampant commercialization that has made most of SoHo, in effect, a large outdoor shopping mall, looks are indeed deceiving. There's is a Starbucks, a Bloomingdales and MoMA store along Crosby, not to mention the multimillion-dollar loft apartments and condos occupied by celebs like Lenny Kravitz and Courteney Love. But there's still lots of graf and grime to remind us what SoHo was more or less like circa 1980. And graf writers like Claw lend it a degree of artistry in keeping with the nabe's original re-generation by artists back in the day.

Sneakers at the time: Puma "Easy Rider"
Muzik at the time: Deerhoof "Green Cosmos"

Ivan Corsa Photo

Went to Nolita on Sunday to get our hair trimmed and came across this recently posted wheatpaste by Matt Siren. Love the high-contrast black-and-white illustrative style. Reminds us of that character "Emily." Or a character you might find in a indie graphic novel. This piece of street art (or guerrilla marketing) is on Elizabeth Street near Prince Street. On the west side of the block are three or four small buildings that have yet to see the effects of the larger gentrification of the neighborhood, which is is now one of downtown Manhattan's most desirable and trendy (and expensive) nabes. The buildings are mostly unus