Subway Graffiti in New York

This is a video on the history of graffiti and how it has evolved.  This reminds me a lot of our discussions we have been having in class as well as 'Exit Through the Gift Shop.'  The way that these people decided to photograph graffiti art all over the city on subways, to document this movement and eventually published a book, reminded me a lot of what Mr. Brainwash did during his eight years of filming.  Like what happened to Mr. Brainwash and his own artwork, this video emphasizes how when media becomes interested, the whole world becomes interested and the movement blows up. Like we mentioned in class, during the seventies in New York, subway cars were being bombed and the beautiful street art on the sides of the cars were being destroyed and lost forever.  One photographer however, made the point to document as much graffiti on these cars as possible.  The book Graffiti New York covers the history of street art until modern day, emphasizing how the movement of graffiti has evolved and is now prospering while revealing decades of documentation of this graffiti art on New York subways.  It is interesting to see how much this movement has evolved and where it is today compared to the past.

-Katie