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Videograf Productions is an underground video magazine series that documents the U.S. graffiti subculture. Videograf was founded in 1989 by two former New York city graffiti writers Carl Weston and Colin "KoolSpin" Turner. The inspiration for the Videograf series came during the summer of 1988, from the graffiti zine movement. It was publications like New York City's "International Graffiti Times" published by David Schmidlapp and Phase2 and the first color graffiti zine from Los Angeles - "Can Control Magazine" published by Power that planted the idea of doing a videotape version of a fan zine. By February 1989 Videograf issue one was in full production. By the summer of 1989, photographer and graffiti artist William "Nic One" Green joined the Videograf team as a producer. A year later the future cofounder of Egotrip magazine, writer and television producer Sacha Jenkins joined Videograf as well. The Videograf Productions operation was run out of Henry Chalfant's studio at 64 Grand Street for about 3 years before moving to Greenpoint Brooklyn.
Videograf Productions was the first group to produce a recurring video series on the graffiti scene. Most films on graffiti up to this point were traditional documentaries. Videograf Productions used a video magazine format to profile graffiti artists and graffiti bombers. The Videograf series was unusual in that it was produced by active and former graffiti writers. At the time, most people documenting urban culture tended to be from outside the culture. The Videograf series wasn't neutral in how it covered graffiti; it as pro-graffiti from the very start. Carl Weston was very aggressive in documenting the new clean train movement that had started in New York City after the last train with graffiti was pulled from service in April 1989. Graffiti artists and bombers like Ven, Ket and many others would make it their mission to get graffiti back on the New York City transit system. The number one thing that would get Videograf Productions into legal conflicts with the New York City Police Department was the inclusion of clean train bombing.
To date, Videograf Productions has produced and distributed over 20 graffiti videos. The original Videograf video series, and later the Graf Core and OverSpray series included interviews with many well known graffiti artists including Zephyr, PHASE 2, Lee Quiñones, Pjay, Ket, Ghost, JA, Death149, Risk, Cope2, Sharp, Reas, Serve, Web, Espo, Kaws, Dash "Sace" Snow and Dream.
On May 26, 2000 the Police Department's Bronx Vandal Squad unit executed a search warrant on Videograf Productions as they were prepping the release of their newest video titled Graf Core 2000. This police action and the confiscation of Videograf Productions entire videotape archive would delay Graf Core 2000 from being released for almost 4 years. A few months after the warrant was executed the Bronx Vandal Squad arrested William Green and Carl Weston for blurring an image used in the video Graf Core 1.0. The official charge was hindering a criminal investigation. This charge was dropped by the judge the next day. Videograf Productions was able to enlist the help of the ACLU's Norman Siegel and later Earl Ward to represent them in a civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York. Carl Weston went to the Bronx Vandal Squad headquarters a few months after the first search warrant in an attempt to get an on camera interview with anyone from the Vandal Squad, Carl Weston ended up running into officer Joseph "Joe Blow" Rivera, the interview didn't go very well. The very next day after the failed interview, the Bronx Vandal Squad executed a second search warrant, Carl Weston feels this was largely an act of revenge for videotaping Joseph "Joe Blow" Rivera face. Four years later the city settled out of court with Videograf Productions.
Fred Brathwaite, more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a graffiti artist. He was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown rap scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. He was immortalized in 1981 when Debbie Harry rapped on the Blondie song "Rapture" that "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." In the late 1980s, Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps.
Leonard Hilton McGurr, known as Futura, and formerly known as Futura 2000, is an American graffiti artist.
Wild Style is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and ZEPHYR.
Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.
Fernando Carlo is an artist from the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, New York.
Dashiell A. Snow was an American artist based in New York City. Snow's photographs included scenes of sex, drugs, violence, and art-world pretense; his work often depicted the decadent lifestyle of young New York City artists and their social circle.
Shit House Poet is the creation of writer and comic book artist Sandy Jimenez. Featured in World War 3 Illustrated consistently throughout the 1990s, these stories chronicle the lives of a nameless narrator and his friends in New York city.
Lloyd John Dunn is a founding member of the mixed-media and experimental sound art group the Tape-beatles and founder, publisher and editor of several small-press magazines, such as PhotoStatic and Retrofuturism. Since the early 1980s, he has been making work for a variety of media, including film, video, audio, print, and the web.
John Fekner is an American artist known for his spray painted environmental and conceptual outdoor works.
John Francis Carluccio is an American filmmaker, artist, and inventor. Carluccio is a two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker who is best known for documenting obscure pockets of urban society and the creative process.
Stephen J. Powers is an American contemporary artist and muralist. He is also known by the name ESPO, and Steve Powers. He lives in New York City.
Raoul Perre and Davide Perre are twin graffiti artists from New York City. They are both members of the Bronx-based graffiti crew, TATS CRU "The Mural Kings."
Sara Rosen was the publisher of Miss Rosen Editions, her own imprint, at powerHouse Books, where she was also Associate Publisher and Publicity & Marketing Director. She left after ten years to start her own company, Miss Rosen.
Graffiti are writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti, consisting of the defacement of public spaces and buildings, remains a nuisance issue for cities.
Phetus is a New York artist with roots in the graffiti and street art movement. Originally from Huntington, Long Island, now based in Manhattan, "Phetus" has been creating artwork under his "Phat Phace" icon since 1988. He began his career as a graffiti artist by taking trips into New York City.
Graffiti in New York City has had a substantial local, national, and international influence. Originating in Philadelphia and spreading to the New York City Subway and beyond, graffiti is among the most common forms of vandalism committed today.
Brian Nobili is an American street photographer and videographer.
Better Out Than In was a residency undertaken by pseudonymous graffiti artist and political activist Banksy in New York City during October 2013. Banksy unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. The majority of the works were stencil graffiti and chiefly political, a distinctive characteristic of Banksy. Other pieces and multimedia exhibits toyed with dark humor and satire.
Danielle E. "Utah" Bremner and Jim Clay "Ether" Harper VI are American graffiti artists, called the "Bonnie and Clyde of the graffiti world". They have tagged trains and buildings in over 30 countries on five continents, and have made books and videos about their exploits. They have also been arrested, fined, and served multiple prison sentences for vandalism. Their use of social media has been used as an example in a book about graffiti artists, and they have been the subjects of a video exhibit and a song.