The 1st Annual Miami Mural Festival and the Flagler Street Art Festival was held from November 30 – December 5, 2021 during Miami Art Week. The festival was produced by Mana Public Arts in collaboration with the Museum Of Graffiti and The Bushwick Collective. Mana Public Arts invited and commissioned some of the top muralist in the world to paint on a variety of exterior building walls down a multitude of streets in the Miami Flagler District and in the Wynwood District during.
Having previously photographed the Mana Public Arts Jersey City Mural Festival, I still had no idea what to expect. Though it would take many Lyft rides around Miami to photograph the artists at work, I was eager to see what the buzz was about. My personal goal was to capture photographs of the artists in front of their murals. There were 28 murals officially commissioned as part of the project, and more to photograph during the 6 day festival spread across Miami. Some artists arrived before the festival start date to get started early. Some murals were of such large scale that it would take longer than a week to finish.
At the Mana Public Arts headquarters there were artist stations with hundreds of Montana spray paint cans in multitude of colors, water, beer, soda and lots of snacks for the artists. My goal with this photojournalism project was to photograph the artists in front of their murals, holding their tool of the trade – spray-paint cans, while also including shots of them with their works. Check out the photo gallery below for some of the highlights!
By Ashley Hodder (Pittsburgh, PA)
By Coes Sneakers (Miami, FL & Venezuela)
By Dylan Egon (Jersey City, NJ)
By Riisa Boogie and Rez Ones (Brooklyn, NY)
By Sydney James (Detroit, MI)
