The Graffiti Bible: How ‘Subway Art’ Shaped a Generation

In the world of street art, few books have left quite as much of a mark as “Subway Art” by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. Published in 1984, it soon became the holy grail for aspiring graffiti artists worldwide. For many it became known as “The Graffiti Bible.”

Martha Cooper, a photojournalist, and Henry Chalfant, an artist and photographer, were unlikely chroniclers of the early graffiti scene. Their collaboration began when they discovered they were both documenting the same phenomenon from different angles. Cooper was capturing the artists and their process, while Chalfant focused on photographing the finished pieces on subway cars.

Huge Impact

For many artists the impact was huge. ‘Subway Art’ was their first glimpse into the colourful and dynamic world of New York City’s subway graffiti scene. Ben Eine, a renowned British street artist, recalls,

“I saw this book, and it was called Subway Art… and it was the first thing I ever stole in my life. This book literally became my Bible. I literally worshiped it for years”.

Capturing a Movement

The book’s photographs would capture the essence of a movement that was by its nature fleeting. Trains covered with letters and characters that passed through the city. For the artists painting the works, their audience was always really just other artists. No-one really foresaw that the names painted on those trains would be long lasting in any way. They didn’t know it then but those pieces would serve as an inspiration for other aspiring writers across the globe.

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Style Guide

For those people Subway Art didn’t just showcase the art. It became a style guide and a kind of manual. It provided a window into the culture, techniques, and ethos of graffiti writing. Artists would study the styles, colour combinations, and techniques displayed in its pages. Often then copying the work onto their own streets and evolving their own style from there.

Photographing Subway Art

Both Cooper and Chalfant talk openly about the challenges of taking pictures of this emerging scene. Explaining how they could sometimes wait hours just to get the right shot. Chalfant describes spending so much time on train platforms that he actually did read ‘War and Peace’. He would develop a technique to ensure that he was able to shoot the full length of the car. Taking a series of overlapping shots that would spice together. It was the only way to capture a complete image of a train piece as it passed through.

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Martha Cooper

Martha Cooper’s involvement in graffiti began when she was working as a staff photographer for the New York Post. It was a chance encounter with a young artist called HE3 that led her to it. First showing off his sketch book he suggested the idea of taking pictures of graffiti. The artist would then introduce Martha to someone he described as a ‘King’. Someone who would turn out to be graffiti legend DONDI. It would be her introduction to the wider graffiti community and the subculture that was happening at the time.

Henry Chalfant

Henry Chalfant meanwhile had been taking pictures of graffiti from around 1973. All without any connection to the artists. Eventually he started to be noticed and some approached him. This tentative initial contact would lead to greater connections. Ultimately leading to collaborations with artists themselves who would start informing him of pieces. Both eventually spending time with the artists themselves actually in the train yards.

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Challenges in Publishing

Actually publishing Subway Art did prove to be a bit of a challenge. Prejudice against graffiti in New York meant that local American publishers didn’t want to touch it. Eventually they took the book to Europe and the Frankfurt Book Fair. There they met eventual partners Thames & Hudson from Britain. It meant that the first edition of Subway Art was published in the UK. Initially, the book had a modest reception. Something that was perhaps due to the still very niche nature of the topic. Graffiti after all was still considered an illicit activity and the publisher gave it a limited release as a result.

The Most Stolen Book in the World…

In reality the book was being accessed. Just by the people the least likely to pay for it. Anecdotally it would gain a reputation as the most stolen book in the world. It’s impossible to verify such a claim but writers soon learned about Subway Art. Copies would be stolen from bookstores and from libraries and then passed around amongst their own friend group. Single copies would be photocopied and those well thumbed black and white versions would become prized possessions. It would only be years later that the authors would realise just how much their book had been distributed.

Impact of Subway Art

Ben Eine, has often spoke of the book’s impact as a teenager. “I looked at these paintings of trains in New York, and I was like, I’m going to do that. I dedicated the next 20 years of my life to doing that”. Inkie, another prominent figure in the UK graffiti scene, had a similar experience. He marks 1984, the year “Subway Art” was published, as the beginning of his journey into graffiti.

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Enduring Influence

Martha Cooper in her own TED talk notes the book’s enduring influence.

“Slowly but surely, the books began to disappear out of bookstores and into the hands of the graffiti writers. And the reason that this book became so popular was because this was before the internet… this was the only way that they could see how the actual letters were styled”.

Legitimising an Art Form

Subway Art’s vivid photographs provided a unique window into the ephemeral nature of New York City’s subway graffiti. It allowed artists to study styles and techniques that would otherwise have been lost to time. As a cultural document it would have a power to transcend cultural and geographical boundaries. Documenting and in some way legitimising what was often seen as vandalism. It went some way to elevating graffiti to becoming a recognised art form. Ultimately paving the way for the vibrant street art scene we see in cities today.