The Writing’s on the Wall

"The writing’s on the wall" is a tribute to the late London photojournalist Roger Perry, one of the first photographers to document graffiti. The phrase is an idiomatic expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. It began to be used figuratively, that is providing warnings where no actual writing or walls are involved, from the early 18th century; for example, in Jonathan Swift's Miscellaneous works, 1720.

These days books about street art/graffiti are commonplace, however it was photojournalist Roger Perry’s book The Writing On The Wall (1976) that led the way, documenting London’s then fledgling pre style-writing graffiti scene.

Roger had a passion for documenting those on the outskirts of popular culture. Fascinated by the city’s developing music and art scenes, he started to take photos for the newly established Time out magazine in 1968. His black and white photographs soon became iconic; capturing the personalities and styles of the era whilst showing the ancestry of what we see on walls across London today. His work looks at the seminal roots of graffiti when words seemed to have more poignancy and graffiti made a statement.

It’s a far more visceral means of communication, that for the most part is less worried about the style of the writing, and more concerned with the content of the message. At a time when graffiti had more in common with
Blake than Basquiat, it’s self-promotion, poetry and political discourse, all played out on the streets of 1970s Britain.