One hundred extraordinary artists representing many European cities, each with its own and often uniquely inspiring graffiti scene, including London, Amsterdam, Paris, and more. This dense, sprawling portfolio is the product of "modern day documenter" Steam 156's undisputed knowledge of European graffiti, and includes artist profiles, most written by the artists themselves, crew affiliations, locations, the year they started, details about style, influences, and characteristic strokes, contours, and angles, with hundreds of photos in all. A medium of powerful, youthful, artistic expression, graffiti spread rampantly across Europe in the early 1980s?and has never ceased. Cities across the continent are now hosts to halls of fame, abandoned spaces, and streets full of incredible work by artists, featured in this book, who are carrying the art form boldly into the future and expanding its influence even further. AUTHOR: Frank Malt, a.k.a. Steam 156, is known worldwide for his tireless documentation of graffiti. Born in the late 1960s in the South of England, Steam156's initial interest in graffiti started in 1984. Eventually connecting with other writers, Steam156 soon began writing himself. Never really one to paint elaborate pieces, he enjoyed the act of getting up. Soon his weekends were spent hungrily hunting for graffiti. Out of this his photo collection grew, which led to many further connections with writers, globally, mainly through the magazines IGT and Hip Hop Connection, to which Steam contributed. He also got in touch with the famous graffiti photographers James Prigoff and Henry Chalfant, forming lasting friendships with both. Steam also began doing graffiti commissions, particularly with other writers such as Mear. This lead to work on TV shows, which generated press coverage. Among his other accolades, Steam has also helped to organise graffiti art shows and launched Graphotism magazine alongside Julio Abajo. 889 colour photgraphs
