Born In The Streets - Graffiti (2009) Full Book Scans

This book was gifted to me by a family friend after I spotted it, sticking out like a sore thumb in their seemingly normal library. The book starts with graffiti’s early years with kids writing their names and street numbers on subway cars. Soon enough, writers were doing full fledged missions to the subway yards to paint cars top to bottom. The book includes first hand interviews with writers such as Coco 144, P.H.A.S.E. 2, Mare 139, Seen, Lady Pink, Ket One, Jayone and rare photos from Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper. As NYC subway car graffiti was cracked down on, graffiti culture itself spread all over the world.

With new styles and techniques being developed by artists all over the world, graffiti became an unstoppable, worldwide phenomenon, like it or not. Outside of the US, the book highlights the graffiti scenes in Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Hong Kong, São Paulo, and more. While I wouldn’t say this book does the BEST job at truly documenting graffiti history, I do enjoy seeing the international perspectives on graffiti.

Photos from the exhibit

“Published on the occasion of the exhibition Born in the Streets—Graffiti presented in 2009 at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, the catalog revisits the birth of graffiti, analyzes its codes and techniques, and presents the movement’s major figures, focusing on the artists who contributed to its explosion, its diffusion, and its recognition by the contemporary art world.

The book includes photographs by Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, John Naar, and many previously unpublished images. Presenting works by artists participating in the exhibition (Basco Vazko, Cripta, JonOne, Olivier Kosta-Théfaine, Barry McGee, Nug, Evan Roth, Boris Tellegen, Vitché, and Gérard Zlotykamien) as well as photographs they took in their own city, it also provides a panorama of graffiti in cities like New York, Paris, Hong Kong, and São Paulo. An introduction by Richard Goldstein and several interviews with the pioneers of graffiti will shed new light on this artistic movement and the major stages of its evolution.” (Fondation Cartier)