ALL SURFACE – Tagging in Dortmund

To most writers in the 1980s and 1990s tagging was the start in graffiti. It was the easiest entry into writing and one could gain respect with the right quantity and quality of tags. ALL SURFACE solely puts the spotlight to marker and spray can tags of that era in one of Europe’s most important graffiti cities: Dortmund.

As SHARK once mentioned, after visiting Amsterdam in the mid 80s and experiencing what a completely bombed city looks like, the aim was to do the same thing in his hometown. The mentality as well as the style from the Dutch capital became a major influence when he, ZODIAK, CHINTZ, CHANA, SATYR, ZHIT, SPOOK, KINOR or ATAIR did flood the city’s walls with thousands of tags.

The documentation of this phenomenon was rare. As an every day thing, which the signatures were, rare highlights like good pieces were more in focus of writers back then. In times of analog cameras usually photos of tags have also not been taken in the 80s and 90s due the high costs of photo developing. As time went by the beautiful handstyles have been erased from the city’s walls step by step and remaining old tags are getting rare these days.

After years of collecting and documenting forgotten traces of the golden era of tagging in Dortmund, ALL SURFACE was published as the editors opus magnum finally in November 2022. It is packed with hundreds of mostly unknown photographs and accompanied with short stories from LOOMIT, ZEBSTER, BABAK, MASON, DRY, KLEH, SALZ, DAM, BALOO, SER, SHYE/SATYR, DENAR or KEY. For lovers of tags and handstyles this book is a must!

244 pages, 17 x 24 cm, open spine binding, blind embossing, edition of 500
Language: German
Release date: November 2022
Publisher: Holger Wiese, Tobias Sawitzki