Caught in the Crossfire

Tristan Manco
Thames & Hudson

There are many books on graffiti, and most of them are extremely interesting and well put together, but as we all know, street art isn’t simply graffiti. Increasingly in the world today we’re seeing stencils and stickers, a fast and effective way of getting your personality across without having to spend time spraying a wall or train. In this book, Tristan Manco takes us around the world, from London to Spain, Holland to America, France to Australia, and shows us in short sharp bursts, the new life being breathed into street art but stickers and stencils.

Each page is covered in brilliant vibrant colour photographs [in fact, you'll find 463 colour illustrations inside these covers] and a short description of the artist and what they do. As always with art, it has a message and Manco attempts to convey the message in as short and simple a way possible, allowing the art to take up most of the page and do the talking for itself.

Looking at the differences and effectiveness of signs, logos, free-form, iconographics and urban characters, this book has depth and isn’t just a hastily put together collection. It goes a long way to show how this new form of art is bringing people together from all over the world, how an idea in Madrid can end up being realised on the streets of Brisbane and so on. The illustrations are excellent and it is brings to life this amazing phenomenon. He also features three of my favourites – D*Face, The London Police and Buffmonster – So he must be good. A book definitely worth picking up.

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