Evan La Ruffa

Art

Evan La Ruffa

Artist Statement

For all my life, really, I have made art. Illustrations as a kid, which gave way to a lot of writing, then the visual arts after college with illustration and line work, and then most recently, photography. I am attracted to ideas more than process, and love how new tools flatten the earth, and give more and more of us a chance to be creative.

My photography has run the gamut - from the dark room in high school where I seemed to love multiple exposures more than most, then live concerts, an emphasis on black and white architecture, and dabbling with SLR’s, until coming to my most recent body of work, which is a series entitled ‘Post All Bills.’ The series was born in New York City, where you can’t help but pass by various Post No Bills walls, of which everyone, quite predictably, posts bills. Ads for concerts, products, anything, really. As they are worn, tattered, torn at, and obliterated by humans, moisture, sun, and wind, they yield layers, segments, and compositions that please me to no end.

Finding them is the first part. Being lucky enough to coincide with them, temporally. After that it is up to me to turn them into more, to discover what else they have to offer, manipulating them in post-production, creating new moments that never existed.

This series has been shot entirely on iPhones. I am not a purist, a snob, or one of these people that thinks because they spent more money on their equipment that they are inherently better at what they do, or that photography isn’t actually more about awareness and light than tech snobbery.

My work is accessible, born from the street, made in cities, and the product of one question: what does it look like from over there? And how can I bring this to life in a new way, a way that makes someone feel good, lose time, and enjoy.

See more of Evan at https://www.evanlaruffa.com/ and his organization IPaintMyMind.