A rare look into the world of contemporary graffiti culture On the
sides of buildings, on bridges, billboards, mailboxes, and street
signs, and especially in the subway and train tunnels, graffiti
covers much of New York City. Love it or hate it, graffiti, from
the humble tag to the intricate piece (short for masterpiece), is
an undeniable part of the cityscape. In Graffiti Lives, Gregory J.
Snyder offers a fascinating and rare look into this world of
contemporary graffiti culture. A world in which kids, often,
shoplift for spray paint, scale impossibly high places to find a
great spot to “get up,” run from the police, journey into
underground train tunnels, fight over turf, and spend countless
hours perfecting their style. Over the ten years Snyder studied
this culture he even created a few works himself (under the moniker
“GWIZ”), found himself serving as a lookout for other artists
engaged in this illegal activity, spent time in the train tunnels
in search of new work, created a blackbook for writers to tag, and
took countless photographs to document this world — over sixty
included in the book. A combination of amazing “flicks” and
exhilarating prose, Graffiti Lives is ultimately an exploration
into how graffiti writers define themselves. Snyder details that
writers are not bound together by appearance or language or
birthplace or class but by what they do. And what they do is reach
for fame, painting their names as prominently as they can. What’s
more, he discovers that, though many public officials think
graffiti writing will only lead to other criminal activity, many
graffiti writers have turned their youthful exploits into adult
careers—from professional aerosol muralists and fine artists to
designers of all kinds, employed in such fields as tattooing,
studio art, magazine production, fashion, and guerilla marketing.
In fact, some of the artists featured have gone on to international
acclaim and to their own gallery shows. Snyder’s illuminating
work shows that getting up tags, throw-ups, and pieces on New York
City’s walls and subway tunnels can lead to getting out into the
city’s competitive professional world. Graffiti Lives details the
exciting, risky, and surprisingly rewarding pursuits of
contemporary graffiti writers.
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