Unpaginated Edited by Roger Gastman,Shane Jessup, Leon Catfish & Deanna Guzman 30.5 × 23.5 cm Language: English Hardback Publisher: R. Rock Enterprises, Los Angeles First edition, first printing 2011
Spray cans, railway markings, gang inscriptions and personal photographs fill Roger Gastman’s exploration of graffiti’s material culture. Drawn from his own archive, the book brings together objects and images that preserve the habits, tastes and working environments of writers. Collections of vintage aerosols and photographs of paint-filled rooms reveal the accumulation behind the marks left in public.
The selection moves from 1940s hobo train art and 1970s gang graffiti to the story of Baltimore writer SHAKEN, combining historical traces with individual recollections and unexpected visual references. Packaging, collected ephemera and informal snapshots receive attention alongside the graffiti itself. The result is a personal view of the culture, concerned with its tools, stories and everyday surroundings as much as its finished lettering.
