As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.

Today’s special guest:

Mark Rigney, photographer, writer, founder of London-based Hooked Blog

Looking back it was for me a year of adventure and travel as I continue my ongoing journey to document the ever-changing and evolving street art movement.  Each year the number of festivals I revisit annually is ever increasing and throughout 2018 I made return visits to WaterfordWalls in Ireland; Nuart in Scotland and The Crystal Ship in Belgium.

This was the year I made it to my first PowWow which also happened to be the first European edition of the festival taking place in a city new to me, Rotterdam. Each year I make an effort to pick one or two new festivals or destination to visit and along with PowWow in Rotterdam; FestiWall in Ragusa Sicily, CVTA Fest in Civitacampomarano deep in the Campobasso countryside in Italy were just some of the new events that will now join my annual list.

Of the thousands of photographs I shot this year I have selected this image of British street artist Phlegm. I took this photograph on a particularly cold day earlier in the year while the artist was taking a much needed coffee break from working on a large mural in the East London neighbourhood of Walthamstow.

We talked about his Cigarette card series, which has seen him producing a magical series of wood engravings, copper engravings and copper etchings each no bigger than 7×3.5cm. Working under a magnifying glass these beautiful miniature artworks are packed with delicate line work with which Phlegm plans to scan and produce a mini book.

Phlegm spoke about experimenting and challenging himself so as not to become comfortable and how working on the series at such a small scale has really altered his line work in the larger murals he is painting. I look forward to seeing the entire collection in the forthcoming book which I hope will get released in 2019.

— Location: London, UK

— March 2018