Whose art is it?

At a book-signing last month, Fort Lauderdale photographer Bob Edelson explained how he transformed photos of vibrantly colored street-art murals into the high-contrast, black-and-white images featured in "Street Art Noir," his second book of graffiti art. The book contains no information about the artists who created the works or details about when and where each photo was taken. Edelson says about a fifth of the 90 photos were shot in Miami during the past 13 years.

"Most of them were from New York and Miami," Edelson says. "So you would just see [in the book], 'Miami, Miami, New York, New York, Miami,' and then 'New Orleans.' I thought that was kind of boring." He also has no interest in tracking down the artists because these photos, he insists, are his works of art.

After all, Edelson argues, he decides what to shoot and how to frame it. He may, for example, only photograph a portion of the graffiti or include the background. "I try to bring the context of that street scene, that ghetto area, those broken walls that are being painted on," he explains. "And that adds to the beauty of that picture.

"Although I shoot other people's art on walls," Edelson continues, "the way I feel is that once I've taken that picture in my way and presented it in my way, this is now my work of art. Yeah, that street art is a major contributor to my work of art but it is my work of art."

Some artists say no matter how the 74-year-old Edelson frames this argument, he is one of an increasing number of photographers reaping the benefits of street art without assuming any of the risk of creating it.

"People risk ass doing stuff and then, this guy's here cashing in on somebody else's hustle," says Aholsniffsglue, a.k.a. Ahol, a Miami-based graffiti artist who, like other artists interviewed for this story, requested his real name not be used. "I think that's pretty weak. It's one thing to take pictures of graffiti and street art. But I think it's pretty lame that that guy's so outspoken about how he's not even caring to give credit to the people who actually did the work."

Ahol recently learned a photo of a mural he painted was hanging in the Midtown 2 building at 3800 N.E. Second Ave. in Miami. Photographer Daniel Azoulay shot the mural, which depicts a pair of eyes Ahol painted on art collector Martin Margulies' warehouse. "He zoomed in on the eyeballs, and you could see the textured wall," Ahol says. "And it's cool and it was flattering, but he didn't note where the picture was taken or the [name of the] artist."

After climbing up and down ladders with cans of black Rust-Oleum paint for several days and nights, Ahol wanted credit for his work. "I spent money on that paint," he recalls. "It was pretty much a dope opportunity, and [Margulies] let us do it. … But to know somebody's there making money off a button that was pressed on a camera, it's kind of crazy."

He e-mailed Azoulay, who admittedly loved Ahol's mural and readily agreed to credit the artist on a nameplate accompanying the photograph. "I thought that was superrespectful of the guy," Ahol recalls. "It shows that he really cares about fellow artists."

Typoe, another Miami graffiti artist, had a similar experience during last year's Art Basel at Chelsea Galleria in Wynwood, where he spotted a photo of a wheat paste poster he'd slapped on an abandoned building. The photo of his image of a bird holding a flag with the initials TCP (for his graffiti crew, The Cat's Pajamas) was priced at more than $3,000, he says.

"It's one thing to take a picture of a big, abandoned building with a few tags," he says. "But it's another to take a photograph with a huge piece of graffiti in it. You can't just do that and not give credit."

Edelson would argue that point. "You can't tell me that I can't take a picture of your work and put it in the book," he says.

Before he published his first book, "New American Street Art: Beyond Graffiti," in 1999, Edelson photographed the window of a South Beach café that featured a mural by local artist Stewart Stewart. "It was really interesting, and I put it into some shows," Edelson remembers. "And he tried to sue me because I was selling a photo that had his mural in it. … The suit was thrown out as being ridiculous."

Later, Edelson considered using the photo in his first book, but Stewart insisted his name should accompany it. "So you know what? I didn't include him in the book and nobody missed his work," Edelson says.

Stewart confirms that his attorney sent Edelson a letter, but says they never took the matter to court. The two men made peace with one another, and Edelson gave Stewart a large print of the photo. But a few years later, when Edelson told the artist he planned to publish the photo in his book, Stewart's request to receive credit for the work was denied. After all, Edelson told him, none of the artists whose works would appear in the book would receive credit.

Edelson maintains that most artists are fine with his methods. "I'm like a hero in the graffiti world here in South Florida," he brags.

But the artists interviewed for this story hadn't heard of Edelson, and weren't thrilled to learn he was hawking street-art photos on his two Web sites, Sohobooks.net and Streetartnoir.com. "I've actually turned them into very expensive graphics to sell," Edelson says. "In other words, using the highest-quality printing and framing processes, so they sell in the $2,000 to $5,000 range." Photos featured in Street Art Noir sell for as much as $100. "Those are what I call my lowbrow art," he says.

Edelson defends his process as "sampling" others' work. "It's almost like how these hip-hop guys sample music," he explains. "You know, they'll record a small piece of something and they'll repeat it. … And yes, they did take a sampling of somebody else's work, but then, they started playing around with it."

Veteran graffiti artist Pest doesn't buy Edelson's argument. "He's trying to make himself feel OK about what he's doing by making his own decisions about aesthetics about how he presents people's art, like shooting in black and white or taking a picture of a ladder next to it. But basically, I think he's very detached from the world that he's trying to use."

Pest is more excited about "Graffiti Miami," a forthcoming book by Karla and Jim Murray. Unlike Edelson, the Murrays' goal is to document Miami's graffiti art scene, and not just photograph it. A 10-year effort, the book will include works by and interviews with more than 200 artists. The Murrays, who documented New York's graffiti scene in the books "Broken Windows" and "Burning New York," hope to convince readers to view graffiti as a legitimate art form.

Karla Murray and her husband say they would never publish a colorful mural in a black-and-white photo. "That's just ridiculous to me," she says. "You can't capture graffiti art in black and white. Miami, in particular, is known for using bright tropical colors."

They also believe in fully crediting artists. "It's ultimately, in our opinion, their work," Murray says. "It might be our photography, but it's their work and we've always felt strongly abut that."

Edelson feels just as strongly that by photographing a piece of street art, the work becomes his own. "I'm not really here to promote the other artist," he says, "but to promote myself and street art as a general thing. This is my work. This is my photography."

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.