Los Angeles Barrio Calligraphy by Jerry and Sally Romotsky

Dawson's Bookshop - Los Angeles, 1976

"To photograph, copy, or contemplate the distinctive calligraphy of Los Angeles' barrios is to invite an audience. Youthful overseers are ever on the lookout for events and incidents relating to "their walls" or at least their wall writing. For over seven years we have studied and photographed barrio graffiti. The youths on the streets and other young persons we met at community centers and schools turned out to be the principal sources of information. The graffiti are theirs. They create and recreate their stylish inscriptions, improvising letter styles and terminology on a firm base of barrio street writing tradition. "