What do you think?
Rate this book
Subway Art
Two gifted photographers have documented every aspect of this extraordinary urban subculture, complete with 239 full-color photographs.
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
18 people are currently reading
2,654 people want to read
About the author
Martha Cooper
39Ìýbooks22ÌýfollowersShe is perhaps best known for documenting the New York graffiti scene of the 1970s and '80s. Her most known personal work began while working at the New York Post. On her return home from the Post she began taking photos of children in her New York city neighborhood. One day she met a young kid named Edwin who helped expose her to some of the graffiti around her neighborhood. Edwin helped to explain to her that Graffiti is an art form and that each artist was actually writing his/her nickname. Edwin then proceeded to tell of the Graffiti King and asked if she would like to meet him. This is when Martha met Dondi, the first one who allowed her to accompany him; while Dondi was tagging she would take photos of his art. In the 1980s she put together a book of photos illustrating the Graffiti subculture called Subway Art. She has degrees in art and anthropology.
She was a photography intern at National Geographic Magazine in the 1960s, and worked as a staff photographer at the New York Post in the 1970s. Her photographs have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian and Natural History magazines as well as several dozen books and journals. She is the Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. Cooper lives in Manhattan but is working on a photo project in Sowebo, a Southwest Baltimore neighborhood.
In the 1980s Martha worked briefly in Belize photographing the people and archaeological remains of the Mayan culture. Two sites that received publication in National Geographic were Nohmul & Cuello, both under the direction of Dr. Norman Hammond.
[From Wikipedia]
She was a photography intern at National Geographic Magazine in the 1960s, and worked as a staff photographer at the New York Post in the 1970s. Her photographs have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian and Natural History magazines as well as several dozen books and journals. She is the Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. Cooper lives in Manhattan but is working on a photo project in Sowebo, a Southwest Baltimore neighborhood.
In the 1980s Martha worked briefly in Belize photographing the people and archaeological remains of the Mayan culture. Two sites that received publication in National Geographic were Nohmul & Cuello, both under the direction of Dr. Norman Hammond.
[From Wikipedia]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
December 29, 2023
The first book to look at this movement: no matter where you stand as far as what is/is not 'art' this book will open your eyes to a movement that has influenced may aspects of modern design. The temporary nature of this 'art' gives it a unique gravitas - a kind of fleeting mirror that shapes our perception of who we are.
November 23, 2018
I bought this awesome book in a record shop in NYC sometime around 2009 or 2010. I was really into graffiti at the time, even though I don't draw (I would like to start learning how to draw and paint though...someday!)
This is a huge book, meant to be displayed and showed off on the coffee table. Crammed inside the pages are wonderfully large pictures of graffiti painted during the Golden Age, which are considered the late 1970s until the mid or late 1980s, before Mayor Koch made the trains "graffiti proof." Most of the pictures taken are of the gorgeous pieces put up on the side of subway cars by legendary artists' like Dondi, Skeme, Lee, and Seen, among many others. You can spend a good day just looking at the artwork, studying the all the intricate and clever details hidden between the vibrant and lively splashes of color.
Just remember that these great piece of art were usually done in the middle of the night in the dangerous subway yards, with little to no light to help while spray painting, and all the while trying to avoid security and guard dogs! Once you realize this, you appreciate the work done that much more.
Despite all the risks, nothing beat the pride and joy you felt once you saw your masterpiece the next morning rolling along the tracks displaying your hard work all over the boroughs of NYC. Everyone would know your alias, your name, your tag. The goal of your work was to go "all-city."
I highly recommend this gem if you enjoy art and want a look into the early beginnings of hip hop!
I also HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the documentary Style Wars. This brilliant film is a companion to the book, with the author Henry Chalfant co-producing it. Both works go hand in hand. Enjoy!
This is a huge book, meant to be displayed and showed off on the coffee table. Crammed inside the pages are wonderfully large pictures of graffiti painted during the Golden Age, which are considered the late 1970s until the mid or late 1980s, before Mayor Koch made the trains "graffiti proof." Most of the pictures taken are of the gorgeous pieces put up on the side of subway cars by legendary artists' like Dondi, Skeme, Lee, and Seen, among many others. You can spend a good day just looking at the artwork, studying the all the intricate and clever details hidden between the vibrant and lively splashes of color.
Just remember that these great piece of art were usually done in the middle of the night in the dangerous subway yards, with little to no light to help while spray painting, and all the while trying to avoid security and guard dogs! Once you realize this, you appreciate the work done that much more.
Despite all the risks, nothing beat the pride and joy you felt once you saw your masterpiece the next morning rolling along the tracks displaying your hard work all over the boroughs of NYC. Everyone would know your alias, your name, your tag. The goal of your work was to go "all-city."
I highly recommend this gem if you enjoy art and want a look into the early beginnings of hip hop!
I also HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the documentary Style Wars. This brilliant film is a companion to the book, with the author Henry Chalfant co-producing it. Both works go hand in hand. Enjoy!
November 10, 2012
Among my most prize possessions is a signed copy by 'SEEN'.
Like many, this was my introduction into Graffiti, and containing work by the true golden age pioneers the now aged content still holds up to any of today's graffiti books.
Like many, this was my introduction into Graffiti, and containing work by the true golden age pioneers the now aged content still holds up to any of today's graffiti books.
August 21, 2023
Guter Ãœberblick, habs jetzt in ca. 3 Std gelesen. Als Einstieg in die Graffiti-Welt sehr gut
August 20, 2022
Absolutely loved this! Such an excellent collection that documents graffiti in NYC in the 80s. The combination of Martha and Henry’s shots brings the scene to life so vividly. I also thoroughly enjoyed their notes at the beginning and end that provided additional context.
September 24, 2024
Begininning in New York, the Graffiti movement has come a long way since a couple kids writing their names on subway trains. This rapid worldwide spread of a vibrant art culture was primarily due to "Subway Art," published in 1984.
This book is the the collaboration of two photographers who documented Graffiti during its gestation period. Originally, it was simply intended to be a small art collection, but it quickly became a global phenomenon with people all over the world creating their own Graffiti works in their home countries. Now, it is regarded as the Bible of the Graffiti medium.
I had heard about this and instantly became interested in so crucial a work to a culture that heavily influences the modern world. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in getting good at the Graffiti art style or anyone who is interested in street or hip hop culture and wants more knowledge on it.
This book is the the collaboration of two photographers who documented Graffiti during its gestation period. Originally, it was simply intended to be a small art collection, but it quickly became a global phenomenon with people all over the world creating their own Graffiti works in their home countries. Now, it is regarded as the Bible of the Graffiti medium.
I had heard about this and instantly became interested in so crucial a work to a culture that heavily influences the modern world. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in getting good at the Graffiti art style or anyone who is interested in street or hip hop culture and wants more knowledge on it.
April 3, 2023
The book was so amazing to the point i finished it in one day , i enjoyed every page...the history of graffiti is really interesting indeed + a very good guide for beginners in this art !
May 2, 2015
Okay. Am I biased? Yes. Why? Because when it comes to Art books, I only ever read stuff from people who are dead or from artists whom I've met from my own artistic journey as an exhibiting visual artist side. So it was really lovely to meet some of the guys and gals from this book!
You are all characters. It was a bonus to find this book by accident without knowing anything about it and then just opened it and realised..."Oh, I know these people!" :)
Love to you all. I know there will be blah blahs about vandalism etc...that's politics...but decades later, I don't see too many blah-blah moralists having their stuff in the permanent collection of most major modern arts museum and I see many of you (okay us, including myself) do....though I'm not a graffiti artist and came from the fine arts side or at least somewhere in between ....
So Ah, to all the critics of these people....Let them eat cake and pop their gout invested veins from being such art philistines! Really looking forward to seeing the movie...hey we're all in it! :)
XXOOXXOO
You are all characters. It was a bonus to find this book by accident without knowing anything about it and then just opened it and realised..."Oh, I know these people!" :)
Love to you all. I know there will be blah blahs about vandalism etc...that's politics...but decades later, I don't see too many blah-blah moralists having their stuff in the permanent collection of most major modern arts museum and I see many of you (okay us, including myself) do....though I'm not a graffiti artist and came from the fine arts side or at least somewhere in between ....
So Ah, to all the critics of these people....Let them eat cake and pop their gout invested veins from being such art philistines! Really looking forward to seeing the movie...hey we're all in it! :)
XXOOXXOO
June 21, 2016
My copy is the 25th Anniversary Edition published in 2009
It is about 128 pp.
The format size is large and the quality of the rendition of the photos, very good.
Here is my conundrum: I look at Hand of Doom by Seen (1980) and I am as impressed by its power and glory as with many murals done during the 1930s under the WPA. The majority of other photos elicit the same reaction but also a feeling that there are/should be other venues for this artistry. Can we fully celebrate the artistry when it often verges into vandalism? There are some examples in this book of tagging (just putting up a signature) that I have a less positive view toward, since what artistry is present is very limited.
Philadelphia is one of many cities that offers other outlets and its Mural Arts Program is one of the most extensive. It invites community participation and pride in the outcome. It has become a tourist attraction in its own right with tours being conducted regularly.
The book is fine and historically significant but the underlying issues are yet to be comprehensively addressed.
It is about 128 pp.
The format size is large and the quality of the rendition of the photos, very good.
Here is my conundrum: I look at Hand of Doom by Seen (1980) and I am as impressed by its power and glory as with many murals done during the 1930s under the WPA. The majority of other photos elicit the same reaction but also a feeling that there are/should be other venues for this artistry. Can we fully celebrate the artistry when it often verges into vandalism? There are some examples in this book of tagging (just putting up a signature) that I have a less positive view toward, since what artistry is present is very limited.
Philadelphia is one of many cities that offers other outlets and its Mural Arts Program is one of the most extensive. It invites community participation and pride in the outcome. It has become a tourist attraction in its own right with tours being conducted regularly.
The book is fine and historically significant but the underlying issues are yet to be comprehensively addressed.
July 27, 2013
My 5-star rating comes with a caveat. Yes, I loved this book; the talent exhibited by the graffiti artists who are represented here is in some cases, extraordinary.
But "beautiful" as it may be, I don't want to give the impression that I condone the practice of graffiting up public spaces. In fact, I abhor it and honestly believe that it is, in a sense, infectious. In other words, all it takes is for authorities to ignore a small problem for it to quickly grow into a huge one.
But this book is (fortunately) about a bygone era. I purchased it new in 1984, and the images were mostly shot from the mid-1970s through the early 80s, when New York City began not only to crack down on the vandalism itself, but also, had the means to clean the paint very soon after it was applied.
Still, the (sad) fact remains that may of the people represented in the book were true artists. It would be interesting to know what happened to them... did any of them end up utilizing their talents in more constructive ways? I'd love to know.
But "beautiful" as it may be, I don't want to give the impression that I condone the practice of graffiting up public spaces. In fact, I abhor it and honestly believe that it is, in a sense, infectious. In other words, all it takes is for authorities to ignore a small problem for it to quickly grow into a huge one.
But this book is (fortunately) about a bygone era. I purchased it new in 1984, and the images were mostly shot from the mid-1970s through the early 80s, when New York City began not only to crack down on the vandalism itself, but also, had the means to clean the paint very soon after it was applied.
Still, the (sad) fact remains that may of the people represented in the book were true artists. It would be interesting to know what happened to them... did any of them end up utilizing their talents in more constructive ways? I'd love to know.
May 20, 2017
One of my favorites on this topic.
January 26, 2014
While only a kind of surface overview of the graffiti culture of the late 70s/early 80s, I would count this as a foundational text - as it was put together by two of the most well-known graffiti photographers of the era (Henry Chalfant also co-produced the seminal hip hop doc Style Wars). It may have benefited from a third writer who could take more of an anthropological or cultural studies approach to really dig deep into the cultural practices of NYC subway art, as it stands it is a great artifact of era - taking its subject seriously and including beautiful photos of subways cars, including some fold-outs of classic work by DONDI and BLADE.
July 27, 2011
I scored this book for under $5 at a Borders closing sale, and man was it worth it. It's quite a large book, but the pictures are awesome and crisp. It doesn't have hardly any info on the artists or places of most of the pictures in the book, but that's kind of how I like it. It leaves more to the imagination. Whilst the pages and pages of subway art are cool in their own right, the real gems are the pictures of the artists painting them. 80's B-Boys at their finest. If you dig graffiti, and dig the 80s, then you will dig this book.
September 1, 2017
A seminal book on the ephemeral art that is graffiti especially on NYC subway system where it originated. The book is made even more romantic due to the way the writers met in documenting the graffiti scene. It covers different styles the motivation of the writers in this interesting grass-roots subculture. The book is full of beautifully curated photos and key for understanding 80s New York graffiti subculture.
May 4, 2015
A combination of street art and photo ethnography. It's a winning combination that takes us into a time capsule. we have the players, the art, and the streets all captured into one nice package. While the focus is on trains and subways cars so we miss out on a lot of graff but it's still an amazing piece of history.
January 31, 2016
Fantastic, quality reproductions of an Art form that in its day was considered more crime than creativity. The photographs not only bring out the sheer talent of some of these artists, but chronicle a vivid time of a pre "sanitized" NYC. The authors accompanying text was excellent, and the only reason it is not a 5 is there was not enough of it.
October 19, 2012
In high school, this was only about one of two books I could find at my library dealing with graffiti, so I made up for this deficiency in variety by poring over this one for many an hour. Lots of great, old school NYC graffiti.
Read
March 31, 2013this felt more historical than current. For a more recent look at graffiti art, I recommend .
April 16, 2013
The original! Takes you back to a place not too long ago but gone forever. This is what it was like. What I saw as a kid. A picture tells a thousand words, words that created a foundation in the hip hop world.
October 17, 2013
This is the bible for graffiti artist as it covers the very first generation of the spray paint artists and the early NYC subway train shows. That said, I think it is more appealing to an actual graffiti artist trying to learn the craft vs. a more casual reader learning about the art over all.
January 20, 2014
This over-sized book is all photographs with a few pages of text. The photos are all subway cars painted with graffiti. I would have liked more information on each of the artists but perhaps that is meant for another book.
March 12, 2017
The 1983 documentary "Style Wars" does a thorough job of explaining how graffiti art spawned from hip-hip hop culture and spread to a global movement. However, the images preserved in this book are a better way to study graffiti as visual art.
July 8, 2008
it's too bad this book isn't 4 times as long. every time i ride the subway i miss this stuff.
January 9, 2009
lots of great pictures, and lots of interesting stuff about the history of graffiti
January 11, 2010
My first graffiti book..And it's lead to a wide collection since then.
Want to read
February 4, 2010want want want want WANT.
April 3, 2011
Found it at the Donner Ramsj for 14 euro's. Got the twice as small original for 30 euro's at Amazon. This book contains hardly any text and loads of big photo's, truly amazing collector's item!
January 8, 2012
This was my first art book and I remeber clearly reading it and thinking my culture, my city, my hip hop was exposed to the world and nothing would ever be the same.
February 4, 2013
A lot of great photos in this book. Good source of inspiration. There isn't a lot of information but a few random facts. One of my go-to books.
November 16, 2015
Loved this, received from daughter as a Christmas gift.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.