AKAY Blackbook 1986-1990 Urban Media

AKAY Blackbook 1986-1990 is the reproduction of Akay’s (VIM crew) first blackbook. It is now published in a second edition. Akay started this blackbook in 1986 when he was 16 years old. He glued a spray paint colour sample chart onto the first page of a standard-sized sketchbook. Through his nightly additions of sketches and photographs and newspaper clippings until the spring of 1990, the personal document of a prolific graffiti writer became this unintentional chronicle of an era of Stockholm graffiti. 

In December 1988, Akay’s father confiscated the blackbook and had it locked. This punishment saved the blackbook, because a few weeks after the books were taken, the police came to their house with a search warrant. They could not find any evidence, because all the photos, and sketches… were glued to his confiscated blackbook. More than 30 years later, long after the contents can be used as evidence in any prosecutable crimes, the blackbook from Akay’s teenage years has been reproduced and made available for the first time. This is the second edition. Fold-outs come in a package with instructions on how to glue them in and a glue stick.