Subway Art

'Many of the images are today iconic masterpieces … one of the most influential art books of its time’ Eye Magazine

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.

• With over 70 fresh photographs not included in the original edition.
• In new introductions Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant recall how they gained entry to the New York City graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s.
• New afterwords continue the story from the decline of the subway graffiti scene in the late 1980s to its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement.
• The authors bring us up to date on how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded, and mourn the loss of several writers to the darker forces of the street.

Contents List:

‘Why don’t you photograph graffiti?’ Martha Cooper • ‘If art like this is a crime, let God forgive me.’ Henry Chalfant • SUBWAY ART • ‘We may have lost the trains...’ Martha Cooper • ‘... but we’ve gained the whole world.’ Henry Chalfant

About the Authors:

Martha Cooper has contributed the photographs for over twenty books and is Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture.

Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer well known for his work on hip hop culture. He is the author of Spraycan Art, and his world-renowned documentation of the artists of the New York subway was memorialized in the most successful book on graffiti ever published, Subway Art, published by Thames & Hudson.