Bay Area Graffiti

Renowned for its dramatic bridges, fog and hills, its diverse culture and iconoclastic citizens, the San Francisco Bay Area is also home to one of the word’s most vibrant graffiti scenes. Bay Area Graffiti is the first book to showcase the region’s dazzling array of graffiti and street art. Photographer Steve Rotman has scoured the abandoned buildings, tunnels and back alleys of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and beyond, documenting this illegal but powerful work. A foreword by llongtime Bay Area graffiti writer JENKS and revealing insights from other prominent Bay Area writers pack this book with the most comprehensive perspective on this stunning scene.

Fabled as a region that embraces freedom of expression in all of its guises, the San Francisco Bay Area has long been a world-renowned cultural hotbed. Bay Area Graffiti is the first comprehensive retrospective of the area’s vibrant contemporary street-art scene. Documented by the distinctive photographic eye of Steve Rotman, the book’s images showcase innovative art made all over the Bay Area, as well as how it blends into the region’s stunning landscapes.

Rotman’s photographs are accompanied by dozens of artist interviews – with the likes of JENKS, ABNO, CHUBS, HARSH, NESTA, REYES, CYMES, APEX and many, many more – which reveal personal stories, insights into inspiration and harrowing tales of agility, all in the name of getting up.

Steve Rotman: ‘The book is the result of my ongoing obsession with finding and photographing graffiti all over the Bay Area, a fascination that began in the spring of 2004. The book presents some of the best, most interesting representative graffiti I photographed during those years. There are more than 700 photos from locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, the North Bay, South Bay, all over really. There’s a wide range of types of graffiti including tagging, bombing, chill spots, and large, legal productions. Plus, over a couple years, I interviewed more than forty graffiti writers who were prominent in the scene and brief segments of those interviews are featured throughout the book. The book aims to showcase through the photos and quotes the flavor and highlights of the very exciting Bay graffiti scene.” FECALFACE