Instant Recognition – Thomas Christ

In 1984 the Swiss photographer Thomas Christ published a small book called SUBWAY GRAFFITI. The booklet did show a selection of shots he took in New York City between ’82 and ’83. Besides spotting trains he connected with writers and was taught about the writing subculture. With 40 years in between Instant Recognition was recently published and is way more than a reprint of the rarity: it might the best book on NY graffiti since decades.

Thierry Furger and Rémi Jaccard hooked up with the 1953 born Thomas Christ and sat down to check out all the photos he took back then in NYC. What they were about to find was pure gold from today’s perspective of the history of graffiti: On top of the ca. 130 known photos from Christ’s archive they discovered almost 200 never before published shots of the Golden Era! Besides rare photos from trains he shows insides, hall of fame pieces, amazing cityscape shots as well as posse and corner photos which just breathe an authentic 1980s flavour of the Mecca.

But that’s not enough: His attention was also caught by a seemingly related movement, that was born on the streets of the Big Apple. On 100 pages works from Richard Hambleton and Keith Haring are presented as Urban Graffiti chapter. Harings well known chalk drawings and Hambletons Shadow Men are precursors and icons of today’s onmi-present Street Art.

In addition the 400-paged tome is packed with explanations and experiences by the photographer, interviews with writers, conversations with Haring and Hambleton, a blackbook chapter, letters, newspaper clippings and an interview with Thomas Christ from 2021. We are especially proud to be able to offer this masterpiece of a publication. We honestly recommend: get this book!

Featuring DONDI, POEM, MIDG, LEE, KASE2, SKEME, PART, DAZE, DEZ, TRAP, CAP, DELTA2, SHARP, MIN, DURO, PJAY, DUSTER, REVEN, BEA, QUIK, SACH, IZ THE WIZ, FUTURA2000, SEEN, TERROR161/JSON, BREEZER, SHY147, BILLY167, BLADE, ZEPHYR, CEY, MAD, CAINE1, KEMT, NICER, KEN, BRIM, MACK and many more.

***The shipping costs for United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and more are the same for two copies. We recommend to order several books for you and your friends at once. Please use the shipping calculator at the cart page to find the perfect solution for getting your book.***

400 pages, 28 cm x 24 cm, hardcover
Language: English
Release date: December 2022
Publisher: Thierry Furger and Rémi Jaccard