Master photographer Brassai’s seminal volume dedicated to street graffiti is back in print. Brassai celebrated the primal forces at play in the act of defacing a wall and the “magical” power of the symbols inscribed. A fundamentally human gesture, graffiti is a distillation of all aspects of life—from birth through love to death. This beautifully curated reissue includes a comprehensive selection of Brassai’s photographs of graffiti, facsimile pages from his sketchbooks, extracts from his conversations with Picasso, and several reworked translations of his essays on graffiti. An essential volume in the history of photography, this book is a tribute to Brassai’s extraordinary prescience and freedom of thought.