Editorz

We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family for your support in 2024. Picked by our followers, these photos are the heavily circulated and “liked” selections of the year – shot by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo. We’re sharing a new one every day to celebrate all our good times together, our hope for the future, and our love for the street. Happy Holidays Everyone!

As we close out the year, we reflect on the powerful tension between graffiti and street art’s raw authenticity and its appropriation by the commercial world. This image of the Nekst campaign on Manhattan streets is both a statement and a question. Featuring iconic faces like Claudia Schiffer and Anna Nicole Smith—aged and distorted by weathered wheat paste—it sparks nostalgia for the 90s while confronting the passage of time.

At its heart, the campaign addresses a larger controversy: the fashion label Guess allegedly lifted Nekst’s signature tag and turned it into a commodity. Nekst, a prolific and bold graffiti writer revered by the community even a decade after his passing, made his mark in high-profile spots that earned him enduring respect. Seeing his legacy co-opted without consent raises ethical questions about the fine line between inspiration and exploitation—particularly when major fashion houses profit off street culture without acknowledgment.

We discussed it here more in detail, but as far as the installations themselves, they nailed it.