James Prigoff started his quest of documenting aerosol art, aka graffiti, back in the ’70s.  He witnessed the evolution of graffiti from its’ birth to where it is today.  He has the largest graffiti photography collection known.  Prigoff might not be an artist or a writer but he is a pinnacle in the street arts movement.  With his words and photographs, he has let graffiti grow and keeps it moving forward.  His latest book Graffiti New York tells the story of how the graffiti movement began.  Here is a summary (from Amazon):

Decades after the movement globalized, New York is still the mecca of graffiti culture. Painting there is a badge of honor, with graffiti artists from around the globe making pilgrimages to New York for that purpose. This is the city where it all began, yet few know the back story.

Graffiti New York fills that gap, detailing the concepts, aesthetics, ideals, and social structures that have served as a cultural blueprint for graffiti movements across the world. The book features approximately 1,000 images, complemented by texts by the authors and relevant players in the movement, as well as descriptive graphics and sidebars.  Ranging from the birth of simple signature tags to today’s vibrant murals, and covering the ups and dows of the movement, the culture’s value system, its social framework, the various forms of graffiti, and significant artists and crews, Graffiti New York is a major addition to Abrams’ superb books of graffiti art.

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