num_pages: 252
description: A rare look into the world of contemporary graffiti cultureOn 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. Whats 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 careersfrom 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. Snyders illuminating work shows that getting up tags throw-ups and pieces on New York Citys walls and subway tunnels can lead to getting out into the citys competitive professional world. Graffiti Lives details the exciting risky and surprisingly rewarding pursuits of contemporary graffiti writers.
language: English
title: Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s Urban Underground
publisher: NYU Press