Photo-journalists/authors James and Karla Murray's last two graffiti books (Broken Windows and Burning New York) as well as their very recently published Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York (all three published by Gingko Press) all covered the territory of the five boroughs of New York City.

But for their latest graffiti book, published this week by Prestel, they traveled to Miami, Florida to capture the 200 + vibrant images for this recommended
contemporary art coffee table book.

Simply titled Miami Graffiti, it is an amazing collection that captures the vibrant and stylistically diverse graffiti and murals of Miami, a city that for some reason tends to be overlooked somewhat when it comes to its street art scene. In fact, this is the first book to focus soley on Miami graf. Flipping through the pages upon pages of perfectly shot, bright, colorful panoramic shots, it's immediately evident that the husband and wife team of James and Karla Murray have both a real passion and a true gift for what they do.

For this Amoeblog I invited the photo authors, who I will interview in a few weeks on the New York graf scene, to supply the Amoeblog with some high resolution jpegs of Miami Graffiti from pages I randomly picked, based on my own taste and the variety of styles displayed. I also asked them to say a few words on each shot and the subject captured. Their words are below, with the page of the book each image appears on as well.


p.40) CROME
The artist CROME says, "I always like to incorporate a character into my piece because if you just do letters it can look repetitive. You need something more to look at than just letters."


p.8) SANTIAGO
The artist SANTIAGO on his graffiti work: "I got to the point where I wanted to do more than just letter structures. I wanted to experiment hermetically and create my own world of characters...I don't want people to associate me with just a graffiti name. I want the freedom that I have with my characters that I can leave something behind that a person has a connection with."


p.20) SPACE
The artist SPACE has a very unique style and painted this in the area of Miami known as Wynwood, which is an up and coming arts neighborhood. The world famous Art Basel has many events in this neighborhood every December.


p.37) TUBS
The artist TUBS was painting this piece at night in a rather rough neighborhood in Miami, surrounded by housing projects. A kid who lived nearby watched the entire night as he painted. The artists often have to paint at night during the summer months to avoid the unrelenting heat and sun. Notice the strip club across the street, "VIP CAT."


p.99) TYPOE
It was about 100 degrees and blazing sun that day. That's why TYPOE had the t-shirts wrapped around his head, neck and face. He had already gotten sunburned from painting the day before. TYPOE likes to use a different style for every letter in his piece, as well as different colors.


p.66) CURE
The artist CURE painted this rooftop spot and a storm started blowing in from the ocean. You can see the storm clouds and all the high-rise condos in the distance that are along the water. CURE, like many Miami graffiti artists, often paints with bright, candy colors reflecting their tropical environment.