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The Shadowman

I’ve undertaken many photographic projects in New York City. One of the shortest-lived, but one that yielded very interesting, long-lasting results, was when I sought out examples of Richard Hambleton’s Shadowman paintings throughout New York City.

Public art, people often called it graffiti, was very prevalent in the early 1980s, and some of the most interesting was done by Hambleton, in 1981 and 1982. These malevolent Shadowmen are no longer found lurking in the Lower East Side, but thirty years ago they seemed to be everywhere and many of them survived for many years. I was drawn to them because of their energy, and that they were a magnet for other graffiti artists. The ironic way in which some had been defaced made for very arresting images.

Hank's Photographs of Richard Hambleton are featured in the June 2011 issue of Bliss Magazine. Download the PDF here: Bliss article