Карьерные траектории граффити-райтеров: трансформируя давление в удовольствие и признание

The objective of this paper is to study how graffiti writer’s career can be conceptualized. First of all, the article demonstrates that illegal graffiti writing can be described in terms of a deviant career concept. The most radical forms of graffiti writing are shown to be based on the graffiti writers’ desire for the dramatic risk-taking experience (or «edgework» in terms of S. Lyng). Secondly, this paper sheds the light on the graffiti writing professionalization processes, analyzing how graffiti writers can apply their specific writing skills outside their subculture. Our empirical material consists of 11 single semi-structured interviews with the graffiti writers from Moscow, Perm and Ufa. The data indicate that making money by working as a decorator and building an art career are the most popular strategies of professionalization among Russian writers. The first scenario is not problematic (municipal authorities and private sector companies are ready to cooperate with adepts of a street art). Conversely, the implementation of the second strategy of professionalization is a very difficult task. Under the circumstances of the underdeveloped contemporary art market street artists are forced to act as curators creating and developing the cultural environment for the purposes of their own growth and to look for unconventional ways to promote and sell their works. Graffiti has autonomous micro-industry.