Pain(t) Spotting: Cheers to the Photographers that made 2014

There will be no images in this post. This is a written tribute to the spotters. That unique pack that are religiously devoted to the documentation of what is happening in street art in Melbourne, this year. You fuckers call us paint spotters. Pfffff.

Us 'paint spotters' will know the following questions well and will ask ourselves daily:

1. Am I an artist?

2. Am I just a collector of names, images and knowledge?

3. Am I a hobbyist?

4. Do I take the shot so people see the work, or so that they see me?

I don't doubt many of us street art photographers are artists who have chosen to stick with the medium of photography. Yet frequently we are derided. Most insultingly, we are often viewed as fans, when in reality, we can be, and often are, the greatest wing-man an artist could hope for.

I want to take my hat off to a special few who I admire greatly in my own little hyper local world.

1. David Russell - energetic, open, generous and collaborative. He is amazing. What he doesn't know about the inner workings of a camera is not worth knowing.

2. Dean Sunshine - he is so easy to be in love with. Not like that, just in terms of wishing you could bottle a piece of him for yourself.

3. All those shapes - how does one person know so much about so many?

4. Arty Graffarti - in the Graff world, he is the equivalent of All Those Shapes.

The four people above, in my opinion, are shaping this scene more influentially than I think anyone gives them credit for.