Training Days

Here are authentic first-person accounts from the graffiti writers and artists whose creative genius fuelled the earliest flowering of the movement in late 1970s and early 1980s New York. Henry Chalfant’s photographs in Subway Art inspired budding graffiti writers around the world; now read the stories behind those iconic images in the words of the pioneers of the graffiti movement.

In the late 1970s, New York City was bankrupt, dirty and dangerous. Born on these grimy streets, graffiti rapidly made its mark. Here, twelve legendary graffiti writers – Bil Rock, Breezer, Daze, Jon One, Kel, KR, Lady Pink, Sak, Sharp, Skeme, Spin and Team – give first-person accounts of their experiences. Individually interviewed for this book by Sacha Jenkins, they reveal an authentic, unparalleled insight into the golden age of graffiti.

Author Biography

Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer well known for his work on hip hop culture. He is the author of Spraycan Art, and his world-renowned documentation of the artists of the New York subway was memorialized in the most successful book on graffiti ever published, Subway Art, published by Thames & Hudson.

Sacha Jenkins is a former New York graffiti writer turned journalist whose books include the Piecebook series of graffiti drawings. He is the co-founder of the seminal hip-hop magazine ego trip, as well as co-author of the best-selling biography of Eminem, The Way I Am.