Autograf: New York City's Graffiti Writers

Rating:
Summary: why would you make a graf book like this
Review: First off, this if not graf art in this book. It is a bunch of stupid looking people who do nothing but write dumb little tags on the walls of NYC. They probably don't even know who SEEN or DONDI or even BLADE are. These people are killing the beauty of what is know as real graf art. I really don't know why someone would want a book about a bunch of taggers anyway. Go get somne of these other books on REAL graf art and stay away from this one.

BTW, I was just in NYC over last week and wanted to see the real graf art...looked all around and all I saw was crap like what is in this book. Nothing really interesting. SEEN where are you when the graf world needs you.

Rating:
Summary: tagging and bombing
Review: graffiti gets a bad rap for polluting our visual landscape throughout the world. who are these so-called criminals? city officials spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year trying to remove this art when they could better spend that money on educating our youth. what motivates these individuals to bomb public surfaces, yet there is no face to the tag?

peter sutherland reveals the mysteries behind today's NYC tag-and-bomb scene by photographing the sources. the portraits are well crafted in composition, lighting, and context. on top of that, each artist has tagged his/her own portraits. sutherland has taken an original idea and elevated photography to a higher art form by revealing the diverse personalities, demeanor and emotions of these artists. definitely a book that everyone should add to their collections!

Rating:
Summary: Original Idea, Beautiful Design, Nice Photos!
Review: My advice to anyone who orders this book is to cut your fingernails before Mr. Delivery man drops it on your doorstep. I nearly ripped the thing to shreds as I excitedly flipped page after page after page taking in one amazing image after another. Sutherland's photos are incredible enough, but the fact that he applied some sort of coating over the artists' tags makes it appear as if they personally signed every copy before it was shipped off for delivery. Nice touch!

I can't wait to pack Sutherland's photos in my mind the next time I visit New York City.