Whether one is at home or traveling, there is constant visual input. An image-maker is asked to make distinctions and decisions on what to extract. Having been involved in this practice for over 30 years, I try and free myself of expectations, even of my own. I’ve looked at graffiti all over the world. I appreciate its noise. I didn’t look for anything in particular ; I didn’t look for skill. I just accepted graffiti’s visual noise. For the last three years I’ve captured what had previously passed in front of my eyes as something that was just there, just the everyday. The noise was like sound for me. Of course, I held on to some of my older habits as a portraitist and landscapist. It really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. There’s room for about sixty photographs here — extracts from the constant visual noise we witness, if our eyes are open. I long to make this book endless. Think of it as the opening chapter of something a hundred times longer, something that just keeps on going : a book-loop.
Ari Marcopoulos
When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking, talking about his feelings or his ideas of relationships. But when I hear the sound of traffic outside my house, I don’t have the feeling that anyone is talking. I love the activity of sound. I don’t need sound to talk to me. I love sounds just as they are. — John Cage
Debris Ari Marcopoulos Publisher Olivier Zahm Photographer Ari Marcopoulos Designer Laetitia Sainte-Croix First published in 2011
Copyright Š 2011 Editions P. & Ari Marcopoulos Printed in Belgium by Snel Grafics ISSN : 1766-8832 The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher.