Photographer Brendan Kitto, Seamless Genius

Brendan Kitto is a multi-talented artist and a solid example of how creative interests and entrepreneurial pursuits may be paired seamlessly. His interest and ability in aerosol art and relationships with other artists provided the foundation for his online aerosol supplies business streetsupplies.co.nz

Brendan has a background in photography and street culture, which in his case presents another seamless partnership. His current practice has developed from an early fascination with the walls, the people and the crazy things he witnessed on ‘missions’ from South Auckland to central on the weekends as a teenager in the 1990’s. Brendan cites those missions as being important introductions to the alternative culture of graffiti and skate-boarding, introductions that first inspired him to pick up a camera, that taught him the impermanence of the moment and the satisfaction in being able to communicate the ‘something’ about that moment that makes it extraordinary.

Although Brendan has been practicing photography and aerosol for over a decade his work is far from being nostalgic. Brendan’s photographic work resonates it’s own raw energy, capturing the spontaneity of life lived with honesty and consideration.

Brendan recently created an installation for the Cultural Mapping Project exhibition Sum of the Parts titled Route 52. the installation was comprised of video footage from earlier times juxtaposed with recent photographs of the same subjects. For me this installation spoke of the ceaseless shifts we are all witness to, perceived or unperceived and how that motion remains relative to culture and cultural development.

Route 52 is also the same title for his Tumblr which sequentially streams more of his photographic images and other images of reflecting his interests. These images are just as often of friends as they are of anonymous characters or walls. The more images you browse the stronger you feel the connections between these seemingly random pictures and begin to grasp the dialogue that Brendan’s practice is perpetuating.

One thing’s for sure Brendan’s got a knack for making transition look seamless, from business to the street, from the street to the gallery, from the gallery to the internet, from Auckland to Miami…genius.