New York Subway Graffiti 1970s

A new exhibition at the bronx museum shows the striking documentary photography of henry chalfant who documented the street art and urban culture in new york city perhaps most notably the seminal.

New york subway graffiti 1970s. Graffiti laced train carts poverty stricken beggars and drug addicts side by side with colorfully dressed gang members harassing the passengers who gladly give up valuable possessions in exchange for their lives were a normal sight back. New york subway 1976 1984 1990 graffiti and all complete version part silent movie duration. In the mid 1970 s with tags going up on walls across new york city and subway cars surfacing each morning covered in elaborate new pieces graffiti art became a political target. Graffiti was one of those crimes that added to the sense of disorder and anarchy that both encouraged other crimes and made new york kind of a scary place to be.

New york city s subway in the late 1970s and 1980s looked like it came straight out of the walter hill cult classic warriors. Around 1970 71 the center of graffiti culture shifted from philadelphia to new york city especially around washington heights where suspects such as taki 183 and tracy 168started to gain. Bbus129 by dondi on a new york city subway car 1984. Heavily tagged new york city subway car in 1973.

Subway graffiti 1970 1989 taki 183 he didn t create the graffiti art movement but his tags throughout the city inspired a new york times investigation into the mysterious 17 year old greek teenanger s antics putting other taggers in the spotlight. With over 250 felonies in a week nyc subway in the 1970s was the most dangerous place on earth. Graffiti in new york city has had a substantial role in the rise of property crimes at the local national and international scale. Graffiti writers had a powerful drive to display their names and identities to the world and a moving subway car was their preferred medium.

Next the city erected a double wall of fences topped with barbed wire around the resting trains and set german shepherds as guards but those measures didn t work either. Crime in general was rising in the 1970 s and it was exploding in the subway.