Subway Art Softcover (English Edition)

The authors document the work of graffiti writers who illegally painted underground cars in New York City. They recount how they gained access to the New York graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s and describe the techniques they used to photograph the graffiti.

In 1984, photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured the imagination of a generation with Subway Art, a pioneering book that documented the work of graffiti writers who illegally painted underground cars in New York City. The 2009 edition of the book is now available in a new, slightly smaller format. Henry Chalfant's images of the trains retain their impact, while Martha Cooper's narrative photographs tell the story. In the introductions, the authors recount how they gained access to the New York graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s and describe the techniques they used to photograph it. The epilogue reports on how the lives of the original subway artists evolved and describes the end of the subway graffiti scene in the late 1980s and its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. This is an indispensable book for all fans of graffiti, stunning photography and 1980s cool.