Posters That Have Caught My Eye: Documenting Damage, Graffiti & Human Intervention

I’d like to share some photographs shot over the past year where the image of the eye has caught my attention; as well as new street abstracts featuring fragmented representation and abstract forms. Many of these photographs document human intervention, either through deliberate damage such as tearing or the presence of graffiti.

Changing Representations in the Street:

In late November 2025 I was walking down Monmouth Street off London’s Covent Garden when I noticed some torn posters which were unusual. Contrary to defaced imagery I have documented in the past, specifically when it comes to eyes in my blog on Defaced Posters: Eye Gouging & Oedipus, these eyes were carefully and accurately cut out rather than scratched out and ripped:

As well as perfectly cut out eyes, the first image has additional graffiti suggesting snot running out of one nostril. My feeling is that this – a touch that can be interpreted as funny, demeaning or both depending on one’s stance – has been added by someone else at a later date:

In the poster alongside, the perfectly cut out eyes reveal a solid ultramarine Yves Klein blue beneath:

The following week I walked past again and the change in both images was dramatic:

The rips in the image below reveal a slice of a beautiful black face whose fragmented gaze is direct:

The next series of images document human Intervention with regards the representation eyes in posters and adverts in public spaces:

A series of found abstracts.The following images were photographed locally to me in the Gospel Oak and Highgate Road vicinities:

Next, a series of images shot in New York in late October and early November 2025:

Below, some abstracts that reference New York Mayoral election. The following images contain torn fragments featuring Zohran Mamdani, who at the time was a mayoral candidate:

Seen on the New York subway, in addition to the outlined eyes and lashes, an example of unibrow graffiti. Open to interpretation, with opinions varying from signifying natural beauty and empowering strength and the legacy of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to a mocking symbol of unkempt ugliness:

In the final section are a few more examples of graffiti that make me question their intention. Humour, misogyny, venting? A combination?

And seen the other day, a pencil moustache and an additional blackened tooth adorn a poster in Soho advertising glamorous eyebrows:

Below, another example of the ubiquity of male genitals in graffiti. A penis at gunpoint drawn on a poster advertising a young person learning music production skills:

The word CUNT scratched into one of the layers of a torn billboard on Highgate Road:

Notes

Yves Klein Blue: French painter Yves Klein signature colour was an ultramarine blue that some people claim spiritually draw them into a different dimension.

Link to my gallery documenting penis graffiti.

Link to gallery documenting graffiti, hair and gender.