Barbara J. Anello has contributed approximately 175 photographs of graffiti in Lower Manhattan from the 1980s and ’90s to the Artstor Digital Library.

The photographer described her urban project: “I photographed graffiti, stencil art, wall paintings, and murals on New York City streets during the 1980s and early ’90s… generally in Soho, Noho, the Lower East Side, and “Alphabet City.” At the time, Soho, where I lived, was still the neighborhood of artists and galleries, but rapidly gentrifying, forcing younger artists east and out. While much of the public art and graffiti was anonymous, the neighborhoods where I photographed embodied the “art world” of the time; these were the streets where artists worked and played, dealers bought and sold. So my photographs included works and writing by artists who became “art world” figures, such as Kenny Scharf and Keith Haring”…

This selection joins two other collections of photographs by Anello in Artstor, one documenting the architecture, arts, and culture of Southeast Asia and Morocco, and the other Tibetan Buddhist art and architecture in Ladakh, India.

Artist and art historian Barbara J. Anello has lived and worked in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Morocco since 1985. In America she has worked for Castelli-Feigen-Corcoran, and the architectural firm Redroof Design. With a Fulbright in Art History and documentary photography of vernacular architecture (2008) she worked in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Her paintings and photographs of Balinese dancers and musicians illustrate I Wayan Dibia and Rucina Ballinger’s Balinese Dance, Drama and Music (2005). Anello studied painting at Reed College and New York University, and received her M.A. in Art History (Documentary Photography) from Montclair State University (2006). She worked with the United States Peace Corps and the Ministère de l’Artisanat, Delegation de l’Artisanat de Meknes, Small Business Development Program in Ain Leuh, Morocco (2006-2008). In 2008, she was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in the Southeast Asia Regional Research Program in Art History.

Anello’s photography focuses on architecture, both historical and vernacular, and aspects of traditional art and culture. She partnered in nominating sites to the World Monuments Watch 2012 and 2014 (Desa Lingga, Karo, Sumatra; Desa Peceran and Dokan, Sumatra, and Flores, Ngada villages). She is also a contributor to Habitat: Vernacular Architecture For A Changing Planet, 2017.