I'm planning an extensive research project to document graffiti in Philadelphia from the 1960s to current. I'm told Temple has a pretty good urban photo archive (including donated Bulletin files). I've seen what the Inquirer/Daily News has.

What other resources are out there?

I'm also wondering if there are some folks here or people you know who were city photographers in the 1960s and 1970s who may have incidentally captured graffiti in the background...

Any tips, guidance, whatever would be greatly appreciated.

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The Dream Police, they live inside of my head

Sounds like a fun project. I have plenty of photographer friends and I'll see if they have anything.

The godfathers of graffiti in Philadelphia are Corn Bread and (K)Cool Earl.

http://www.subwayoutlaws.com/History/History.htm

Someone on here has a husband who is a grafitti historian. She is in QV...forgot her handle. Hopefully she sees this thread.

I hope she does, too!

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The Dream Police, they live inside of my head

If you're thinking of me, it's my brother, not my husband. He and his wife Sara run www.woostercollective.com, which documents urban and street art, which is much more than graffiti (and indeed, graffiti has many different subcatagories -- tagging, bombing, etc.). Unfortunately, there isn't a "Philadelphia" category on Wooster so searching the site for Philly stuff won't be easy.

I think the best starting place for you, however, is trying to get a meeting with Jane Golden, head of the Mural Arts Project. It started as the Anti-Graffiti Network and she probably knows more than anyone about Philadelphia graffiti art and artists.

You also might want to try and find a copy of Norman Mailer's book, "The Faith of Graffiti," for some insight into the early days of the movement.

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---Shosh

Chips, I have been working on documenting a particular subculture of graffiti... the stickers, wheatpastes, stencils and the occasional throw up here in CC and N. Liberties for the past year and a half. I would definitely contact the Wooster Collective as a starting point as well as the Gallery "rarebreed" at 530 S 15th St as they are a graff/street art gallery with ties to a lot of local artists who would probably know the older people from this scene.

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"i live my life in the city"

Come to think of it wasn't there a show on PBS not to long ago about the history of graffiti in Philadelphia and NYC ?

Didn't know anyone was doing this. Every so often when I see a nice sticker, I send a pic to my brother for id. The sticker scene here has really exploded in the last year and there's some great stuff out there. I've noticed some stencils and I think there's some growth here with those. Haven't seen many wheatpastes though ... where are your finding them?

Oh, and Chips, YouTube has quite a few videos of Philly Graf. Also, didn't our own PhillyBlog cyclists recently visit a nice graf site?

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---Shosh

I realize that graffiti is part of our "culture", and much has been analyzed concerning it, but please don't call it anything more then it really was, and that is the defacing of public and private property and making most of Philly look like terrible.

Lets not forget "Bobby Beck"