Product Description

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. WhatÂ’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. SnyderÂ’s illuminating work shows that getting up tags, throw-ups, and pieces on New York CityÂ’s walls and subway tunnels can lead to getting out into the cityÂ’s competitive professional world. Graffiti Lives details the exciting, risky, and surprisingly rewarding pursuits of contemporary graffiti writers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #470320 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Released on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 239 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780814740453
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In his first book, fan and socio-anthropologist Snyder doesn't just celebrate urban street art and its rising stars, but takes a thorough look at its history and future, the language of public art and the idea of the graffiti artist as criminal-including an intriguing challenge to the "broken windows theory" cited by law enforcement and NYC government officials as central to their efforts. Along the way he decodes a backdoor in the East Village covered with a dozen different tags-"in the same way that the sedimentary layers of ancient ruins inspire archaeologists to tell tales of past civilizations"-profiles rising and established stars, and takes a raw, detailed tour of the scene with guidance from writers like ESPO, MEK, and AMAZE (their trip through the "Freedom Tunnel" from 72nd Street to 125th Street under Riverside Drive is especially exciting). Snyder's "the kids are alright" assessment, buttressed by many examples of thrill-seeking taggers finding successful careers in art, design, publishing, and (commissioned) mural-painting, is well-articulated, convincing, and quite possibly reassuring for the urbanites living among (or perhaps raising) today's writers and bombers.
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Review

"Graffiti lives! proclaims author Snyder in this new, vaguely academic account of graffiti in the urban underground—particularly New York."
- New York Post

"In his first book, fan and socio-anthropologist Snyder doesn’t just celebrate urban street art and its rising stars, but takes a thorough look at its history and future, the language of public art and the idea of the graffiti artist as criminal—including an intriguing challenge to the ‘broken windows theory’ cited by law enforcement and NYC government officials as central to their efforts. Along the way he decodes a backdoor in the East Village covered with a dozen different tags—’in the same way that the sedimentary layers of ancient ruins inspire archaeologists to tell tales of past civilizations’—profiles rising and established stars, and takes a raw, detailed tour of the scene. . . . Snyder’s ‘the kids are alright’ assessment, buttressed by many examples of thrill-seeking taggers finding successful careers in art, design, publishing, and (commissioned) mural-painting, is well-articulated, convincing, and quite possibly reassuring for the urbanites living among (or perhaps raising) today's writers and bombers."
- Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review

"Outstanding, innovative, and multidimensional. . . . I can easily see this book becoming the new ‘best book on graffiti.’ "
- Joe Austin, author of Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City

"Will prompt readers to look again at graffiti scrawls they may previously have ignored."
- —Kirkus Reviews

“Graffiti writers, the book argues, cannot be understood merely as practitioners of vandalism and social disorder, but also as members of a diverse subculture who, in many cases, have used their experiences to build legitimate careers.”
- The New York Times

About the Author

Gregory J. Snyder is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Customer Reviews

Must have urban ethnography
Finally a scholarly analysis of graffiti that's not stuck in the 1970s. Anyone doing urban ethnography should check this book out. The author's methodology appendix offers up innovative and creative research techniques. Plus, anyone following Shepard Fairey or Banksy will appreciate the discussion of the career trajectories less well-known writers take as they move away from the street.

I would like to get his address to share some 'art' on his house walls! =)
I wonder if Mr Snyder would like people to "tag" his house... Why not organize a group of 'fans' to graffiti his place every day? I bet he would love it! =) He does not care about all the people that has to remove it from their properties and even loves the 'thrill' of being a vandal. I think someone had a very over-protective mom back in the day! =) Grow up buddy! You are a College teacher now!

The only positive thing that I got from it was this: "No one wants to spend time and energy to do graffiti that will be painted over in twenty-four hours, because there's no fame" Just a reminder for the rest of us about how to deal with this issue.