When Henry Chalfant moved to New York City in 1973, as a sculptor and Stanford University graduate, there was no world-wide graffiti movement. However, in a decade’s time he would go on to establish himself as one of the most important documentarians of graffiti culture with the release of ‘Style Wars’ (director: Tony Silver), 1983 followed by ‘Subway Art’ (co-author: Martha Cooper) a year later.
As a resident, Chalfant began to explore the uptown stations where the trains ran outside on elevated tracks. He would stand on the platform, with the sun coming over his back as the train arrived opposite him, and then snap a succession of overlapping photographs of the bombs, burners and masterpieces, which he would later cut up and splice together in his downtown studio in Lower Manhattan.
Chalfant explained, “When I first saw graffiti in New York I was a visitor. I saw tags on trains and on the walls in the early 70s… I was curious as to how it was done and why.”
“You didn’t know who was doing it and it was new and you couldn’t believe that people were getting into the tunnels, or wherever they were doing it, for enough time that nobody could catch them.”
Henry Chalfant’s collection of iconic photographs that were originally featured in the graffiti bible, Subway Art, were welcomed home by The Bronx Museum of the Arts on 26 September this year as part of a six-month-long exhibition titled, ‘Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977-1987’.
At the opening reception, Chalfant commented, “I have got to say how happy I am that this came to the Bronx Museum. I spent so many hours of my life up here documenting these trains and this is where I came to do it mainly.”
“Thank you to all the writers in the room and all the artists who made this happen in the first place. I get thanked a lot and I always have to really acknowledge those who came before. I couldn’t have done it without you, so enjoy the show.”
Chalfant’s subway photographs form the centrepiece of the exhibition, exaggerated by life-sized prints of train cars masterpieces, accompanied by 100 or so smaller photographs and other imagery from Chalfant’s personal archive that capture the birth of the Hip Hop movement.
Included are black book drawings and outlines by subway writers, objects from various art exhibitions and Hip Hop shows, as well as over 200 photographs of icons like SEEN, and the Rock Steady Crew, along with lesser-known DJs at park jams in the Bronx, and graffiti artists at the writer’s bench on 149th street.
A section of the exhibition has been transformed into a replication of Chalfant’s Lower Manhattan studio, paired with a soundtrack of subway reverberations and archival videos including All City (1983) and a video produced in 1982 about Henry Chalfant’s technique for capturing subway art. In another section, painted on a wall, is a quote by Mare 139, “We may have lost the trains, but we gained the world.”
In 2014 Chalfant explained the significance of graffiti in retrospect, “What appeals to me most about it is that it has touched people in a very powerful way. It’s about giving a voice to people who don’t otherwise have a voice, and about giving a certain amount of power to people to claim their place in the world and place as members of the human race, members of culture…”
“People are taking it upon themselves to take this opportunity to speak out and to claim their role in society, and that has been the thing that has most impressed me about the diffusion of this art around the world…”
Curated by Spanish street artist Suso33, the exhibition was originally produced for the Tomás y Valiente Art Centre in Madrid, Spain, until BMA’s own Sergio Bessa brought it to the attention of organisers and urged them to host the exhibition.
‘Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977-1987’ is on show at The Bronx Museum of the Arts until 8 March 2020 and is open to the public at no admission cost. This exhibition was produced in consultation with Eric Firestone and Sacha Jenkins (the co-author of ‘Training Days: The Subway Artists Then and Now’) and supported by Kaws, Supreme, Powerhouse Arts, and Mass Appeal, and others.
DJ KAY SLAY interviewed Chalfant in the lead up to the event. During their conversation, Chalfant further expressed his opinions on the deeper meaning behind graffiti, saying that, “The fact that so many people have learned from their graffiti, how to work and how to work with enthusiasm, to dedicate yourself with diligence – they have had to learn all these skills in order to do it, and they carry that on to their future life.”
In line with the above, during the 25th Anniversary of ‘Subway Art’ in 2009, Chalfant stated that “Factories have been built and workers put to work for graffiti artists, which is one of the wonderful things. Another wonderful thing that has happened is … cops say graffiti is an entry-level crime – if you start graffiti pretty soon you will be mugging people and then you will be murdering … Well, in fact, it is a path to a career, and I have seen that on so many, so many occasions…”
‘Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977-1987’ continues until 8 March 2020 at The Bronx Museum of the Arts – 1040 Grand Concourse Bronx, New York 10456
For more information visit: artvstransit.com and bronxmuseum.org
To stay updated with Henry Chalfant, visit: henrychalfant.com and follow @henrychalfant on Instagram.