When an anonymous photographer started documenting graffiti-covered trains in New York in the 1970s, nobody seemed to take much notice.
Or so Henry Chalfant thought. The truth was, plenty of the city’s graffiti writers saw him – they just didn’t trust him.
“I was just doing it because it was fun, it wasn’t my job,” he says. “I didn’t even meet any writers until several years into it. Of course, I understood later that they saw me but nobody would approach me because I was middle-aged, caucasian and therefore could quite possibly be a cop.”
Henry Chalfant, producer of the seminal graffiti documentary Style Wars, is in Melbourne to speak at the Carbon Festival. Photo: Simon Schluter
Eventually, Chalfant would come to know the creators of much of the graffiti he had photographed and parlayed that relationship into the seminal 1983 documentary about graffiti and hip-hop culture, Style Wars.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/style-wars-creator-revisits-graffitis-golden-age-20130411-2hnzv.html#ixzz2VEe5G6id
Art & Design Magazine
Henry Chalfant, producer of the seminal graffiti documentary Style Wars, is in Melbourne to speak at the Carbon Festival. Photo: Simon Schluter
