Photography: Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant
Text: idem
Design: idem
2016 (reprinted 2022)
Book of the month September 2024
The cover shows a photograph of a young man in action with a spray can. Over this is the title of the book and the names of the two photographers, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, and the name of the publisher, Thames & Hudson. It is a paperback reissue of the original 1984 edition, with an addition of 70 extra photographs, bringing the total to 152 photographs.
The back contains interesting information. “In 1984 the groundbreaking Subway Art brought graffiti to the world. 30 years on, the bible of the street-art movement is back and better than ever!”
Compared to the 1984 edition, the book contains new introductory texts by the photographers that give an impression of how they, separately, came into contact with graffiti in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s and how they were accepted into the community. In an afterword, both photographers look back on how graffiti unexpectedly spread across the world.
The photos take up an entire page. We see elongated shots of painted trains, sometimes two or three shots above each other. In the middle there is even a fold-out image, so that we get an idea of the length of the painted trains. These photos are alternated with photos of the graffiti scene, mostly images of graffiti artists. The photos of the trains appear to be by Henry Chalfant, the photos of the graffiti scene by Martha Cooper.
Martha Cooper worked as a photographer for the New York Post and through a report about children playing in the streets she came into contact with graffiti writers. She had a background as an anthropologist and was interested in graffiti culture and later also in hip-hop culture. She heard from the writers that there was another photographer around, visual artist Henry Chalfant, who focused on the works themselves, the pieces.
In a time of conceptual art and minimal art, Chalfant was struck by the expression of graffiti art. He found a location, an above-ground subway station, without ‘disturbing’ buildings in the background. There he waited for the moment the train would enter the station and he could take several photos by quickly moving himself. After the invention of the motor drive, working became easier, because he could take photos of an accelerating train in quick succession. In his studio he edited these different shots together.
Cooper and Chalfant got information from writers about new pieces, in exchange for the photos. As trains were cleaned sooner and sooner, capturing them with the camera became more important.
Cooper and Chalfant decided to publish a book together. Together they worked on a dummy, eventually found a publisher and in 1984 Subway Art was published.
In the late 80s, the subway art movement was ‘successfully’ combated by the authorities and it looked like the graffiti art form would disappear. But through traveling graffiti artists and sales of the book, this form of expression was spread worldwide.
Many writers later end up in the world of (graphic) design or visual or performance art.
The book Subway Art is in the library of Pennings Foundation and is for sale in the PF Shop during the exhibition With One Eye Open.
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