Henry Chalfant

Henry Chalfant (Jan 2, 1940) is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture His photos are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Chalfant is graduate of Stanford University, where he majored in classical Greek Starting out as a sculptor in New York City in the 1970s, Chalfant turned to photography and film to do an in-depth study of hip-hop culture and graffiti art One of the foremost authorities on New York subway art, and other aspects of urban youth culture, his photographs record hundreds of ephemeral, original art works that have long since vanished

His photographs have appeared in exhibitions of graffiti art from its early appearances in New York/New Wave at PS1 Contemporary Art Center to retrospectives such as Art in the Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and City as Canvas: Graffiti Art From the Martin Wong Collection at the Museum of the City of New York, in addition to galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, and Asia

In 1983, Chalfant co-produced the PBS documentary Style Wars, the seminal documentary about graffiti and hip hop culture Among Chalfant's other films are Flyin' Cut Sleeves, a documentary about Bronx street gang leaders in the 1970s and Visit Palestine: Ten Days on the West Bank, based on his visit to the occupied territories in 2000 His 2006 documentary From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale chronicles two generations who grew up on the same blocks of the Bronx, NY, using rhythm as their form of rebellion—for the older generation of the 1950s it was the rhythms of Cuba; for their children of the 1970s it was the rhythms of rap The film was featured in the Latino Public Broadcasting series Voces in 2006-2007, and won an Alma Award for Best Documentary

He has co-authored an account of New York graffiti art, Subway Art, and a sequel on the art form's worldwide diffusion, Spraycan Art He is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on New York subway art

Chalfant has stated his influences are varied:

"In college my mentor was Charles Rowan Beye, the Greek scholar I really didn't have a mentor for my art work, but I was influenced by great sculptors I admired like David Smith and Eduardo Chillida For visual anthropology, I was influenced by the ethnographic filmmaker, Jean Rouch"

Chalfant continues to preserve and archive past work, make documentary films, and mentor other filmmakers' work through Public Art Films, a non-profit organization "dedicated to producing films and videos about grassroots cultural expressions"

On June 29, 2012, Chalfant released Henry Chalfant's Big Subway Archive as a 200-page book Produced by Chalfant and Max Hergenrother, it is the first volume of a multi-volume archive comprising his entire collection of subway graffiti photographs The archive series was renamed Henry Chalfant's Graffiti Archive: New York City's Subway Art and Artists in 2013

The e-books are published by Sleeping Dog Films, which primarily archives the photographer's over 800 photos of New York City Subway graffiti Each book in the series concentrates on a particular group or groups of graffiti artists, with an introduction by Chalfant giving background on the time and place in which the artists worked These passages also contain non-subway-car photos of the artists or their neighborhoods as well as video interviews with the featured artists The pictures of the subway cars are actually multiple photos overlapped to show the entire length of the subway car at a direct ninety degree angle

The first three volumes of the series have been released Volume 1, CYA and TVS published June 29, 2012; CYA stands for "Crazy Young Artists" and TVS stands for "The Vamp Squad" Volume 2, Rolling Thunder Writers and Soul Artists, published December 7, 2012 Volume 3, TC5 featuring Blade, published July 1, 2013; "TC5" stands for "The Crazy Five" or "The Cool Five"

The series has received generally positive critical support and has generated mild controversy for some interview material, such as graffiti artist Lady Pink's assertion that "The graffiti movement has become a greater thing than the Renaissance" The series also sheds new light on some historical graffiti feuds such as Seen TC5 versus Seen UA

Works:
Starting out as a sculptor in New York in the 1970s, Chalfant turned to photography and film to do an in-depth study of hip-hop culture and graffiti art One of the foremost authorities on New York subway art,and other aspects of urban youth culture, his photographs record hundreds of ephemeral, original art works that have long since vanished Exhibits of his photos include the OK Harris Gallery and the landmark ‘New York-New Wave’ show at PS l, and important galleries and museums in Europe He has co-authored the definitive account of New York graffiti art, Subway Art (Holt Rinehart Winston, NY 1984) and a sequel on the art form's world-wide diffusion, Spray Can Art (Thames and Hudson Inc London, 1987)

Chalfant co-produced the PBS documentary, Style Wars, the definitive documentary about Graffiti and Hip Hop culture and directed Flyin' Cut Sleeves, a documentary on South Bronx gangs, in 1993 He produced and directed Visit Palestine: Ten Days on the West Bank in 2002 His film From Mambo to Hip Hop was featured in the Latino Public Broadcasting series, Voces in 2006-2007, and won an Alma Award for Best Documentary

Chalfant is a resident of New York City with his wife Kathleen, an actress They have two children, David, a musician and producer, and Andromache, a set designer He continues to make documentary films about urban popular culture

SCULPTURE - Solo exhibitions include: A-Dieci Gallery, Padua, Italy, 1970; 14 Sculptors Gallery, New York, 1973; 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, 1978 He was a founding member of 14 Sculptors Gallery

Group exhibitions include: Sculptors Guild, Lever House, New York, annually, 1974-1983, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, Pa 1977; OIA Battery Park, New York, 1977; Sculptors Guild, Bronx Botanical Gardens, New York, 1981; Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1981-1983;

PHOTO-DOCUMENTATION - Solo exhibitions include: "Graffiti in New York", OK Harris, New York, 1980; Canton art Institute, Canton, Ohio, 1981; Riverside Studios, London, 1985; Instituto de Cultura Norteamericana, Barcelona, 1985; Addison - Ripley Gallery, Washington, DC 1991 Ten Years: 1977-1987 The Prosper Gallery, New York, 2002; Maharishi, London, 2002; Prosper Tokyo, 2002; Galerie Speerstra, Paris, 2003; Iguapop , Barcelona, 2004; Montana Colors, Barcelona, 2006; Cox 18, Milano, 2006; Galerie Speerstra, Paris, 2006

Group exhibitions include: New York/New Wave, PS1, New York, 1981; "The Comic Art Show", Whitney Downtown, New York, 1983; "Content, a Contemporary Focus 1974-1984", Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC 1984; "Since the Harlem Renaissance, 50 Years of Afro-American Art", Bucknell University, 1985; Groningen Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands 1993: "Urban Mythologies", The Bronx Museum, New York, 1999 "Art of the American Century Part ll", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1999 "Hip Hop: A Cultural Expression", The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio; 1999; Hip Hop exhibit at the Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA, 2000; Helenbeck Gallery, “Whole in the Wall”, New York, 2009; Cartier Foundation, “Born in the Streets”, Paris, 2009 The Bronx Museum, New York, 2009

BOOKS - Subway Art, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, Thames and Hudson, London, 1984, Henry Holt, New York, 1984; Spray Can Art, Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff, Thames and Hudson, London and New York, 1987 Subway Art 25th Anniversary Edition, Thames and Hudson, London and Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2009

FILM AND VIDEO - Co-produced Style Wars, a PBS documentary film with Tony Silver, New York, 1984; produced with Rita Fecher and directed the documentary on South Bronx gangs, Flyin' Cut Sleeves, 1993 Produced and directed Visit Palestine: Ten Days on the West Bank 2002 and directed From Mambo to Hip Hop, a documentary produced by City Lore Inc 2006

Current project is a documentary film, working title, "Grand Tour", based on film footage his father shot in 1931 while on a trip around the world

Exhibitions:
1980 (2016) Eric Firestone Loft, New York
Henry Chalfant (2014) Steven Kasher Gallery, New York
City as Canvas: Graffiti Art From the Martin Wong Collection (2014) Museum of the City of New York
Moving Murals (2014) City Lore Gallery, New York
Art in the Streets (2011) Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Whole in the Wall (2009) Helenbeck Gallery, New York
Born in the Streets (2009) Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris
Hip Hop (2000) EMP Museum, Seattle
Urban Mythologies (1999) Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
Art of the American Century Part ll (1999) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Hip Hop: A Cultural Expression (1999) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art (1985) Bucknell University, Lewisburg
Content, a Contemporary Focus 1974-1984 (1984) Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC
The Comic Art Show (1983) Whitney Downtown, New York
Elaine Benson Gallery (1981) Bridgehampton, New York
Sculptors Guild (1981) Bronx Botanical Garden, New York
New York/New Wave (1981) PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
55 Mercer Gallery (1978), New York
OIA (1977) Battery Park, New York
Three Rivers Arts Festival (1977), Pittsburgh
Sculptors Guild, Lever House (1974), New York
14 Sculptors Gallery (1973), New York
A-Dieci Gallery (1970), Padua
Chalfant's solo exhibitions also include Maharishi (2002), London; Prosper (2002), Tokyo; Galerie Speerstra (2003, 2006), Paris; Iguapop (2004), Barcelona; Montana Colors (2006), Barcelona; and Cox 18 (2006), Milano His archive is represented exclusively by Eric Firestone Gallery
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