Judging Books by Covers

Photo c/o Steve Rotman

Here is a professionally executed, well designed, and beautifully presented, graffiti publication. Steve Rotman and Chris Brennan authored this here 208 page-coffee table book entitled Bay Area Graffiti. If you know anybody that appreciates graffiti or photography, then that person will like this book too.  Highly recommended.
BA baGraffus contains about 800 images, and the images are what will sell this book.  LARGE, richly colored, and beautifully photograffed pictures, portraits of the graffiti that make up this book.
They are portraits of graffiti, yes-but these are portraits of the Bay too; portraits of Time, portraits of Blood, Sweat, and Fears. Like Free-Climbers who scale buildings illegally, w/o safety equipment , these heads are climbing buildings too-billboards, and everything else needed to catch a dope spot.  The difference is, writers usually have to do that carrying 5 gallon buckets of paint(often more than one), rollers, cans, you know- all the accouterments of a professional painter, but they must do this in the middle of the night and rarely with any type of support at all. And these guys are people too,  standing on a 8in' garter over the freeways of SoCal is some scary shit, and then they actually paint there too? Damn.
What I really was diggn on were the quotes; a surprising number of those interviewed expressed feelings one might not immediately identify with "Graffiti Artists": feelings such as fear of death, of remorse and guilt, as well as the fact that writing  is very often an addiction. These are very honest and thot provoking quotes which allow the reader to more closely identify w.these artists; Yeah, these guys deserve to have their work cataloged in the way that the authors have done.
In my opinion, this is the most well designed graff book to come out so far. Let me explain; This book measures about 11.5x9 inches, opening the long way. This book has a spine which isn't connected to the pages, so that spine doesn't crack when the pages are opened.  Plus the pages open to lay flat...think Subway Art, but without ruining the spine of the book, and with no pages falling out.  A book large enough to display these awesome photographs, a non-crackable spine, and pages that lay flat; these are three simple things that I think anyone producing an art/photog book ought tot take into consideration.  We all know it's a major annoyance needing to bend the whole book back to see art at the spine.  Oh Whoops the Spine Cracked.
You'll hear it again and again if you're checking up on Steve, that he is a great Photog.  He Is.  Like Martha Cooper, Mr. Steve incorporates the city-scape within his photos, making the photos extremely visually interesting.. He presents themes that add another dimension to this great hardcover, and it's done without announcing the fact, which is fresh. My favorite theme is the Doorways: 16 doors in two rows of 8, across a two page spread.  In essence, this is one Awesome Graffiti Book; a rare gem indeed.
Also done are some short blurbs about most of the artists it features. I had a couple issues with this, the least of which being the font, in both size and color.  With around 60 Artists statements and quotes, it gets tired trying to read the black words on a dark gray background.  Also there is sorta a feeling in my gut, that not everyone who was up around that time are actually repp'd in this book buuuut I gotta giv'em the benefit of the doubt, being they're residents of the area and I isn't.

Bottom line: This is a book that writers will love. I do feel the cover price is justified, although-as always, check online first for less expensive copies.  The last thing I must admit: For months and months I had been judging Bay Area Graffiti by it's cover...
Boys and Girls, please do not judge books by the Font on the cover. It's probably not indicative of the quality of the book Inside.
Great Job Steve and Chris, Graff Pages has been blessed w.another masterpiece.

PEACE
fS

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