The Faith of Graffiti deservedly remains an icon and reference in the documentation and vindication of graffiti, and the urban cultures it represents. Taking the form of a photo-essay with images taken by John Naar in 12 days between December 1972, and January 1973, with a...
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The Faith of Graffiti deservedly remains an icon and reference in the documentation and vindication of graffiti, and the urban cultures it represents. Taking the form of a photo-essay with images taken by John Naar in 12 days between December 1972, and January 1973, with a text by Norman Mailer, it saw the light first in 1974 gaining cult status. A much expected reprint with a few additional images, was finally offered in 2009.
The volume operates as a sample case study documenting relatively early graffiti manifestations, although some of those involved were already talking of a dead scene at the time. While quite innovative in formalizing the work, what Naar and Mailer documented referred to a cultural form that with its shifts and transformations was already quite well developed.
These early years present a nice raw sense of graffiti in the city, and Naar's images offer an stimulating document. However Mailer's essay feels not only a bit disconnected, maybe even dated, but other than for the congratulatory hyperbole of graffiti it feels in a manner that it barely scratches the surface. The New/Gonzo Journalism employed by Mailer uses an openly personal and subjective approach that more often instead of feeling that it aims to offer the close and critical account of an experience, ends putting him egotistically at the center of the narrative.
However it is true that Mailer makes a strong case for the recognition and importance of graffiti, and in that context the essay has often been idealized to extremes. Unfortunately what he often does throughout the analysis is to put it superficially, and in my opinion unnecessarily, in parallel to the annals of high art, from renaissance masters to what was heralded at the time as contemporary masterworks displayed at the MoMA. This leaves the actual intellectual underpinning in the same muddled cultural waters of intellectual justification, social distinction. And Mailer is close to making a rather explicit defense of graffiti belonging to the same predicament. And most importantly, while he succeeded relatively in some circles with this glorification of graffiti, it leaves aside plenty if not all of the social intricacies, disputed spaces, and implications for visual communication that the emergence of graffiti in US cities represented.
On a historic sense the book is a great touching point to discredit the hyperbolic history of hip-hop graffiti. In particular how it is often assigned unquestionable paternity of a whole rebirth of an urban expression. While hip-hop graffiti in NY and the influence it exercised is essential, it requires a far more rigorous and delicate account. If anything, "The Faith of Graffiti" shows the existence of a well developed graffiti presence well before hip-hop was consolidated placing it as a fundamental cultural presence from where hip-hop and other expressions emerged. While urban graffiti in US cities had much to change into formalized expressions, here it shows in early 1973 a rather mature cultural form, which was rather self-sufficient from an also emerging hip-hop scene that would take still a few years to provide its early milestones.
Ultimately, and taking into account the 35 years passing between editions, it would have been exciting to have been offered something beyond a few extra pictures and an afterword. An adequate essay putting the work in context would have been welcome. And probably more important the geolocation of some of the images, and a critical take on how those spots-neighborhoods, and taggers, have changed over time would have been tremendously stimulating. Of course, this would have made it take an expanded analytical character not present in the original. But with so much time since the Faith of Graffiti made its mark it seems like a somewhat missed opportunity.
The Faith of Graffiti deservedly remains an icon and reference in the documentation and vindication of graffiti, and the urban cultures it represents. Taking the form of a photo-essay with images taken by John Naar in 12 days between December 1972, and January 1973, with a text by Norman Mailer, it saw the light first in 1974 gaining cult status. A much expected reprint with a few additional images, was finally offered in 2009.
The volume operates as a sample case study documenting relatively early graffiti manifestations, although some of those involved were already talking of a dead scene at the time. While quite innovative in formalizing the work, what Naar and Mailer documented referred to a cultural form that with its shifts and transformations was already quite well developed.
These early years present a nice raw sense of graffiti in the city, and Naar's images offer an stimulating document. However Mailer's essay feels not only a bit disconnected, maybe even dated, but other than for the congratulatory hyperbole of graffiti it feels in a manner that it barely scratches the surface. The New/Gonzo Journalism employed by Mailer uses an openly personal and subjective approach that more often instead of feeling that it aims to offer the close and critical account of an experience, ends putting him egotistically at the center of the narrative.
However it is true that Mailer makes a strong case for the recognition and importance of graffiti, and in that context the essay has often been idealized to extremes. Unfortunately what he often does throughout the analysis is to put it superficially, and in my opinion unnecessarily, in parallel to the annals of high art, from renaissance masters to what was heralded at the time as contemporary masterworks displayed at the MoMA. This leaves the actual intellectual underpinning in the same muddled cultural waters of intellectual justification, social distinction. And Mailer is close to making a rather explicit defense of graffiti belonging to the same predicament. And most importantly, while he succeeded relatively in some circles with this glorification of graffiti, it leaves aside plenty if not all of the social intricacies, disputed spaces, and implications for visual communication that the emergence of graffiti in US cities represented.
On a historic sense the book is a great touching point to discredit the hyperbolic history of hip-hop graffiti. In particular how it is often assigned unquestionable paternity of a whole rebirth of an urban expression. While hip-hop graffiti in NY and the influence it exercised is essential, it requires a far more rigorous and delicate account. If anything, "The Faith of Graffiti" shows the existence of a well developed graffiti presence well before hip-hop was consolidated placing it as a fundamental cultural presence from where hip-hop and other expressions emerged. While urban graffiti in US cities had much to change into formalized expressions, here it shows in early 1973 a rather mature cultural form, which was rather self-sufficient from an also emerging hip-hop scene that would take still a few years to provide its early milestones.
Ultimately, and taking into account the 35 years passing between editions, it would have been exciting to have been offered something beyond a few extra pictures and an afterword. An adequate essay putting the work in context would have been welcome. And probably more important the geolocation of some of the images, and a critical take on how those spots-neighborhoods, and taggers, have changed over time would have been tremendously stimulating. Of course, this would have made it take an expanded analytical character not present in the original. But with so much time since the Faith of Graffiti made its mark it seems like a somewhat missed opportunity.
