Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Rüdiger Glatz aka RUEDIONE came up as an active graffiti writer before the lens replaced the can. It was the need to document his own work that first put a camera in his hands. What began as a practical necessity became a lifelong obsession.

From the early 2000s onward, he immersed himself in the writer's scene as its most intimate visual chronicler. As a founding member and organizer of the Montana Writer Team — alongside ATOM, CANTWO, DASH, KENT, and SMASH137 — he travelled the globe with the crew, always with a camera in his bag. The access he earned as a writer among writers gave his photographs something rare: authenticity from the inside.

His signature is black and white. Stripped of color, his images cut straight to the raw nerve of graffiti — the tension before a mission, the adrenaline of a covert run, the quiet after a piece is done. His work doesn't just document what writers make. It captures what they feel.

His book Backflashes - Graffiti Tales took that vision worldwide — Hamburg, Frankfurt, New York, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Naples, Amsterdam, Santiago de Chile — portraying the covert missions, the moments, and the emotional weight of life as a writer. No glamour, no distance. Just truth. See also some of those iconic photos transferred to T-Shirts.

Over the years, RUEDIONE moved to Hamburg and has expanded his practice into fine art photography, portraiture, and conceptual series.

www.ruedigerglatz.com
@ruedione