The Triangle

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jessica Moore Henry Chalfant presented graffiti photography to students in the University Screening Room Feb. 19.

Henry Chalfant, a self-taught photographer who took pictures of subway stations, trains and graffiti in New York City in the 1970s, presented his work to students Feb. 19 in the University Screening Room.

"I really just started doing it for fun. … The exhibit was kind of an information, an overview of my connection to that subculture," Chalfant said.

According to Chalfant, many graffiti artists had seen him taking photographs of their work and thought he was a cop because he was a middle-aged white man.

"They didn't approach me but they knew I was out there. Then, eventually one of them came up to me and asked me what I was doing and I told them," Chalfant said.

He and the artists developed a friendly relationship to the extent that the artists would inform him of new works they created, and Chalfant said he is now still friends with some of the artists.

Chalfant's photography of subway trains ended in 1985, and he then continued a few more years photographing graffiti walls for his book, "Spraycan Art." He eventually finished taking photographs by 1988.

Chalfant also later produced a documentary, "Style Wars," based on his photographs.

John Langdon, an adjunct professor for Graphic Design at Drexel and an artist who works with ambigrams, words that can be read the same way when help upside down, said he shares similarities in his artwork with the graffiti in Chalfant's photographs. Both their work includes working with letter forms, and they both push the limits of readability, according to Langdon.

"Graffiti is much more spontaneous and a closer tie between the emotions of the artist, particularly as he is doing his work and the final result. My work involves a lot more before the fact cognitive thought," Langdon said.

Langdon said that when people in the past told him there was a tie between graffiti and ambigrams, it surprised him but at the same time pleased him because he loves the energy and excitement that is present in graffiti.

"Chalfant's personal experience brought me closer to being able to feel what it must have been like to be a graffiti writer and experience the intensity of working in the train yards at night," Langdon said.

Allen Sabinson, dean of the College of Media Arts & Sciences, wrote in an e-mail that the event itself was a huge success; there were so many attendees that people were turned away.

"[Chalfant] gave context to a meaningful discussion of this form [graffiti], which embraced a more complex perspective that considered the social, economic and artistic currents that gave birth to its rise," Sabinson wrote. "Obviously, the large turnout indicates that the subject matter of [Chalfant's] work is of interest to young people and his informed and thoughtful presentation was extremely well received."

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