Naar-ly Man

Jon Narr. Hmm, does that name ring a bell? It ought too, and it probably won't, which is too bad.
Too bad for you.
Jon Narr represents a whole third of what the world should know as the Godfathers of Graffiti Photography. Because along with Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, Narr's photography blessed the works that have floated graffiti literature for the first 3 formative decades of graffiti as we know it.
The Faith of Graffiti, Subway Art, and Spraycan Art, with the latter 2 being practically ubiquitous in the culture, while Faith, aka "Watching My Name Go By"-was the seminal work, coming out in 1974, with a introduction written by non other than Norman Mailer hisself(whoever that is...), the Real Graffiti Bible, and many an old school head will tell you this. Enough about that till a later date.
The Birth of Graffiti is Mr. Narr's long coming follow-up to Faith. It tells it's tale in photographs, as it should, considering the author credit. Sacha Jenkins always blesses the page with a fresh word . Write On. And then a few brief pages of words by the author reveal a sense of duty that he feels concerning the documentation of his urban surroundings. Capturing the streets of New York during a "crazy two week period at the end of 1973", Jon Narr now sees these photos thru the eyes of a historian-hoping maybe, that we do not allow our memories to be gentrified as much as the Lower East Side has.
I recommend this book to the heads who were there, for those who long to have that time back; urban architectural historians will dig this book too. As well as thems like me: I love graffiti and I love collecting as much as possible, especially Graffiti Books; and this one, from back in the signature style days helps me act like I know.LOL
Like that. Another thing I do with Old School Writing books/fLIcks is seek out my name in various forms.  FredOne, or Swift, or whatever-catchn my name is Fun, and seeing a word that you thot you had came up with is always humbling.

It you like that Real Old School, this is it.  Jon Narr deserves some mad props as far as this Graff Photog thing goes... As Mr. Narr states in Birth: Norman Mailer writing the words in The Faith of Graffiti had added legitimacy to Graff in a way that may have never achieved otherwise. True, and if that book wouldn't have happened, we may not have had Subway Art, or Spraycan Art or the rest of the thousands of graff books that have subsequently been written. So sure, Mr. Mailer wrote the words in Faith...but it had been Jon Narr's photography that was the catalyst to it's production. Without the pics, it wouldn't have been The Graff Bible.

Get this book if just to give props to he who helped make Graffiti Legit as a recognizable Artform .
Stay peace,
fS