Culture
In Pictures: New York City's long-lost graffiti culture
Subway Art — Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant were among the first professionals to seriously document the burgeoning graffiti scene in New York City - one that created havoc for panicked city officials but went on to define an era. Their resulting 'graffiti bible', Subway Art, has just been reissued.
Written by: Adam White
The prisoner who found freedom behind bars by becoming a painter
An unexpected creative spirit — Artist and writer Chris Wilson educated himself on the mean streets of 1980s San Francisco, landing in prison when he was sixteen. Change, he says, is not a single turning point. It’s something you channel and work on for life.
Written by: Zach Sebastian
The couple that turned a DIY web series into a breakout comedy hit
Meet High Maintenance — Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfield are the masterminds behind the web series High Maintenance, about a New York pot dealer and his eccentric, generally unhinged clientele. A runaway success on Vimeo, their own HBO series is coming in 2016.
Written by: Samantha Maine
Punk. London: A year-long celebration of four decades of punk
Punk's 40th anniversary — A festival of music, art, film and writing all around London.
Written by: Joshua Gabert-Doyon
In Pictures: Pioneering black photography collective Kamoinge
We tell our own stories — A new photo book chronicles the wide-reaching power of Kamoinge, a collective of black photographers founded in 1960's Harlem to combat white domination of the photographic industry.
Written by: Adam White
Video: The hilarious 1960s anti-porn film that links smutty mags to child murder
The ‘Reefer Madness of porn’ — Watch as hairy-palmed youngster Paul Halliday is seduced into a world of bared butts and kiddie murder, in Pages of Death: a 1962 anti-pornography film unearthed by the Oregon Historical Society.
Written by: Adam White
How working with homeless people gave Kazuo Ishiguro an education in human nature
A crash course in compassion — Before he was a Booker Prize-winning author, Kazuo Ishiguro was a social worker in a London homeless shelter. He tells how a tough job taught him about the extremes of human nature and helped shape him as a writer.
Written by: D'Arcy Doran
Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, announces retirement in freestyle rap message
"No more parties in S.A." — The artist formerly known as Mos Def rounds off a week of bad headlines by releasing an audio message on Kanye West's official site where he announces his apparent retirement. Also plugs Swish.
Written by: Adam White
Video: The man who brought the internet to remote Nepal
Connecting the world, DIY-style — Hiking for Emails tells the story of Mahabir Pun, a Nepalese man who for six years trekked a two-day hike to the nearest village in order to check his emails. Realising there must be a simpler way to access the Internet, Mahabir began an incredible quest to bring the web to his remote community.
Written by: Adam White
Annie Leibovitz's 'Women' project is an almost-perfect study of humankind in 2016
Era-defining photography — The most recent project from masterful American photographer Annie Leibovitz is an incredible time capsule of contemporary society.
Written by: Shelley Jones
