Welcome from flickr.com/photos/prachtig (click to see the picture there)

Amsterdam, 20^th of august 2007

Last week Silvie, Maya and me went to see Prince in the O2 in London.
Our seats were so close to the arrow point of the stage that it felt like Prince played his bass solo just for us.
The next day - still humming ‘Let’s go Crazy’ - we walked the Old Spitalfields Market and with a streetmap our hands when we walked around the corner of Brick Lane Silvie looked straight in the face of George Passmore. Immediately recognizing both Gilbert and George, hard to miss together in their suits and in their natural biotope.
With our (new Lumix) camera in hand I turned into a kind of paparazzi. Stalking them from the other side of the road, shooting pictures making use of the cover of a passing truck. Being decent I did not make it into a complete artist hunt.
I could have stepped up to them and then, what? Telling them I admire their art for many years? That the only art book I bought lately is their complete pictures...

Back in Amsterdam I looked at the (snap)shot realizing it’s a lucky shot indeed.
There is al lot to see. Including the unknown man, the graffiti, the colour of the wall matching their suits and so on. What to do? Shall I try to contact them? Asking if it’s OK that I print it and give it away? To whom?
Try to sell it?
Anyhow.
I went to my good friend Maarten Helle to do a little Photoshop, correcting colour if needed. Actually we didn’t do anything else than cropping a little, adding metadata and making a copyright note in the left corner.

So I consider it a gift to the Flickr Community right now. Print it, enjoy.
With these restrictions:
Don’t alter or even crop. Mention silvielucas and petermertens. Do not use in commercial publications, websites or any medium without written agreement from us.
Take a look at the work of Gilbert and George.
Think before you stalk them like I did.

Download the full sizezip here

good luck, Peter Mertens