Immediately upon entering the “City as Canvas” exhibit, visitors recognize the bright, abrasive bubble-text that decorates public space across the city, the world: graffiti. But the bright spotlights of the museum showcase present the work – some even encased in frames – as something more than just vandalism to be washed away by angry authorities. The piece I chose to specifically focused on intrigued me because it was not a piece of graffiti, but rather a photograph of the New York graffiti movement as a cultural landmark among young artists and photographers of the 1970s and 1980s. The photo, displayed in a black frame and bordered by white space, was titled “DAZE and SKEME entering #3 yard, Manhattan,” and described as a digital color print. The titles suggest that those in the photo are not just anonymous vandals crawling through a chain link fence, but artists with widely recognized names and purpose. Taken in 1982, the pictures portrays one young man crouched in a crudely cut hole within a chain link fence as another man stands over him looking into the dark lot. For the two young artists, it highlights the length they were willing to go to express themselves through this desired medium and the role that the younger generation of New York artists played in the whole movement. It also clearly reveals the attitude the general public and especially law enforcement felt towards graffiti, as they most likely chose to navigate an empty lot at night in hopes of avoiding police involvement. Aesthetically the central part of the piece lies near the bottom, focusing on the two young men and the remnant of the chain link fence by their feet. A bar across the fence breaks the photo almost in half, with the top part reserved for what appears almost as empty space; all the viewer can see are rough shapes and lights through the cracks in the chain link.