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New York graffiti trains pull into Birmingham

John Bray
BBC News, West Midlands
Reporting fromBirmingham
BBC A balding man with glasses and dark jumper and jacket stands in front of a wall with subway train images across it.BBC
Henry Chalfant, who is now 85, flew in from New York for the opening of the exhibition

Respected New York photographer Henry Chalfant is clearly delighted by how Birmingham is showcasing his work in a new exhibition.

He's flown into England's second city to give his seal of approval to The Epic Story of Graffiti.

"This is amazing, this is really spectacularly beautiful and so impressive and grand. And for me to see that entrance, coming across the plaza, was like mind-blowing."

The 85-year-old was in New York at the time the city gave birth to hip-hop, and travelled around the city in the 1970s and 1980s documenting young men creating an art movement with graffiti on the New York subway.

A giant image with the words 'The Epic Story of Graffiti: Through the lens of Henry Chalfant' in yellow on the side of an entrance to a modern shopping centre.
A wall with hundreds of New York subway trains across it showcasing the colourful graffiti on them.
The Epic Story of Graffiti is free to enter and runs until 29 June from 11:00 BST to 18:00 BST at Birmingham's Bullring.
As you enter the exhibition you are met with a wall showing hundreds of subway trains in New York covered in graffiti.

"I think we've proved now that this is an artform that has exploded beyond the kind of boundaries that people try to confine this artform with," said The Epic Art of Graffiti curator Mohammed Ali from Birmingham-based Soul City Arts.

"I saw Henry many years ago, over 10 years ago in New York and I said: 'We've got to bring this to Birmingham' where I was born and raised, and I feel really, really blessed and privileged that Henry has trusted me with these pictures."

Henry Chalfant A black and white image of a teenager, with dark hair and wearing a knitted jumper, spray-painting a train.Henry Chalfant
Three men are stood in front of a wall of subway train images. The man on the left is wearing a black T-shirt with coloured images, a black hoodie top and an NY baseball cap. The man in the middle is balding and is wearing a dark jumper and suit jacket with glasses. The man on the right has dark hair and a dark beard is also wearing glasses, and has a white shirt and beige jacket.
In 1981, Henry Chalfant photographed a teenager spray-painting a train. That teenager was Carlos Rodriguez who went on to forge a successful art career as Mare139.
Carlos flew into Birmingham for the official launch of the exhibition, and was there with Chalfont and Mohammed Ali, founder of Soul City Arts.

Chalfant, originally from Pennsylvania, moved to New York in the early 1970s at a time when the city had a fearful reputation.

"It was when New York was at the bottom, already going down the drain," he said.

"The middle class was fleeing, the Bronx was burning, and East New York was burning. It was terrible and pretty scary to go there.

"But it never ceased to blow my mind living in New York. There was already graffiti on the trains and I wanted to take pictures to show my friends outside of the city to say 'see it's not so bad, it's actually exciting'."

Chalfant started photographing the train painters in 1977 and spent the next eight years capturing their work, once he had convinced them "I wasn't an undercover cop".

He added: "The graffiti movement has been culture-changing and I was there at the start and I feel very happy and lucky and proud of that."

Henry Chalfant A man in a red sweatshirt and green trousers runs on top of a graffitied subway train carriage on tracks.Henry Chalfant
Henry Chalfant A black and white image of eight New York teenagers stood against a graffiti wall in jeans and T-shirts.Henry Chalfant
Looking back at his work in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, Henry Chalfant said: "Hip-hop was emerging, graffiti was happening."
"These were young kids, they didn't care what the general public thought. The artwork evolved from just tags on the train to real artworks."

The exhibition has been launched to coincide with the B-SIDE Hip-Hop Festival, which takes place this weekend, and is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The three-day festival takes place at Birmingham Hippodrome, Southside and Bullring.

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