Urban Art Association

Instant Art Exposure by Leanna Valente(@leannav), by dreadnatty on Sept 18, 2015 15:16:14 GMT 1, Instant Art Exposure by Leanna Valente(@leannav)

Please support Leanna. She is a top notch street art photographer in NYC.

"Straight from the streets to the pages of the book, how it all began

“Instant Art Exposure” is an ongoing photography project documenting street artists and graffiti writers on film as they work. The artists then sign or tag the photographs. Artist and photographer Leanna Valente began the project in May 2013 as a diversion from the typical digital camera and signed black book. Taking out her eight-year-old instant camera, Leanna began shooting the artists as they worked and getting the photographs signed on scene for fun. As the months passed and the collection grew, the pursuit became a passion and then an obsession to capture local, national and international artists as they work. Instant film comes with its own challenges, yet despite working a full-time job, and dealing with weather and lighting conditions, if something was going up on the walls, Leanna was going to be there, always staying true to the art form, staging nothing — ever. Her patience and perseverance has led to a collection of over 1,000 photographs of hundreds of artists as they graced the streets, buildings, roll-down gates, and alleys with large murals, stencils, spray paint and wheat pastes.


With your help through this Kickstarter campaign, the book Instant Art Exposure, gives you the opportunity to journey through Leanna’s collection. The project preserves forever the work of these artists, bringing instant photographs with a creative twist to a new level of artistic expression.

Why It’s Important

Away from social commentary and debate, street art and grafitti is art, whether created in defiance, as a symbolic language, or created out of the purity of self-expression. Yet it is not for sale, it is rarely granted permanence and is often gone as quickly as it appears. Leanna’s Instant Art Exposure project preserves its relevance with a virtual journey through the streets of New York City and Miami, documenting works in progress, capturing both the artist and processes of this dynamic subculture. Her instant prints become the tiny canvases and the Instant Art Exposure book project, the gallery, allowing these dynamic works to live on for all of us to celebrate.

Featuring over 300 photos and the works of more than 50 artists. Prints/photos available to purchase.

read more on the project here: