NYC Graffiti Art
Image shot on the train to Coney Island. Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Johnson
“Graffiti is the rock and roll of visual art. It came from America & spread throughout the world!”
Swooshes and paint splashes, thick and thin lines, white space, texture, and grunge overlays - Graffiti is an art form, and in New York City, this art is everywhere. So while most tourists feast their eyes on the iconic NYC buildings and bridges, I feast mine on the subway walls, the alleyways, and the lamp posts. There are masterpieces everywhere, hidden amidst the dirt, the speeding subway trains, and the crowds of people always rushing to their destinations.
Graffiti emerged in New York in the late 1960s and was the brainchild of young adults and kids aching for self-expression. Despite the city’s laws and attempts to remove it, graffiti continues to blanket the city in colorful calligraphy, sharing snippets of the human story.
NYC has long been one of my favorite travel destinations. With each trip, I snap dozens of pictures of the graffiti I discover, knowing that should I return to this exact location in a year, that same piece of art will most likely be gone. I’m capturing someone’s mark on their environment, someone’s story. Graffiti is five generations of kids screaming out with paint cans amidst the chaos, the politics, the noise, crying, “I was here!” and I see you.
