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.

Abjekt

Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant
Thames & Hudson

This isn’t a new book, in fact it was published over 20 years ago, but it still remains one of the most important graffiti books there is. Two photographers, who were infinitely interested in the graffiti surrounding them in New York, met after they had both worked closely with artists separately and decided they wanted to pool their collective talent and experience into a book.

When you open the book, the first page you see is a double page spread of New York, a dull vision of grey and tall monotone buildings. But at the forefront, in complete opposition to the backdrop, is a subway train covered in graffiti. Vibrant yellows and blues blaze from the car and you know that these photographers have captured the exact reason of graffiti in that one frame.

The book itself features the writers who were prominent at the time and whose names are that of legend now – Skeme, Kase 2, Dez, Dondi, Seen, Iz The Wiz – and showcases their amazing talent, often with pages just of their work, not needing words to provide the message they’re trying to get across to the reader. It’s amazing to see how fresh and alive their art was in the late 70s and early 80s and see how it influenced the graffiti you see around you in 2006.

The end of the book features epitaphs for graffiti done by the artists after the Buff seemed to finally overthrow the writers on the subways, but one thing is clear when you reach the end of the book – Graffiti is not dead and never will be, and it is thanks to the amazing ability of these early writers that the art is as strong and forward thinking as it is now.

This book is a classic, if you don’t have it, shame on you. Go and make it right by picking it up as soon as you can.

Abjekt