Images of graffiti, weather and grime, when seen through Irving Greines' lens are remarkably beautiful and fleeting. Each evokes the discovery and demise of man, and a photographer's passion to reconcile them. Vibrant colors, layered in textures commonly unnoticed by the passing eye, explore the grit and diversity of urban decay. Scale and size transform chaos to structure and order, making each new environment ephemeral and unique in natural light.

Greines' abstract and unconventional focus that's become "Urban Wilderness" was conceived in the alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown in 1990, but soon shifted to downtown Manhattan. Walking the Big Apple's streets with a camera and tripod, he records popular culture, politics, show business, high fashion ¹ graffiti life as seen on walls, but commonly condemned and ignored.

Born in Los Angeles and educated in law, Greines has had national solo and group exhibitions, among them at the Museum of the American Institute of Architects in Washington D.C and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center at UCLA. He is included in publications and collections such as the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, New York, as well as numerous private collections.

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