SoCal Freight Benching - Vol. 1
(2022)For most people having to wait at a railroad crossing for a long freight train to roll by seems like an eternity and a giant waste of time. Those people can’t wait for a bridge to be built so that they can just get where they are going as quickly as they can without having to wait on some train to roll through at 15 MPH. They’ve got stuff to do!!!
Myself and thousands of other people around the world take this intrusion into our personal time as an opportunity to witness one of the greatest traveling art shows known to man.
Thousands of artworks, created by amateurs and professional artists’ alike roll from city to city across our entire continent.
From USA & Canada to Mexico. From the East Coast to West Coast these rolling artworks come to us, instead of the other way round’. Stand by the tracks for hours like a lot of us do and witness the amazing things you’ll see rolling by anywhere between 5 MPH and 50 MPH.
These pieces are, however, temporary. They are constantly being painted over by other writers, or the cars are scrapped. Preserving these pieces is an important undertaking that thousands of people are undertaking daily. This is my little contribution to the preservation of this history.
Author: Silence Seven
Publisher: S7 Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9798218057060
Instagram: @soilentseven
Website: http://socalfreights.com
Freights
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SoCal Freight Benching - Vol. 2
(2023)Every time I come home from a bench session the first thing I do as I'm dumping flicks off of memory cards onto the computer is a little write-up of how my day went. I try to note the things I saw, observations, the weather, and anything else I think might be interesting for people to read when I post my photos online. I also try to add things that family members might be interested in reading one day, years from now, that will give them some insight about me. It's just a nice way to remember the day out. These write-ups began as a few sentences, then a few paragraphs, and have grown into more detailed write-ups over the last few years.
I have stories. Some are un-eventful,…
Author: Silence Seven
Publisher: S7 Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 164
ISBN: 9798218108625
SoCal Freight Benching - Vol. 3
(2023)Preservation of graffiti is important. What other art form do you know of that is under constant threat of being painted over either by the city or another artist? Walls get painted over, trains get painted, cleaned or scrapped daily. If you walked into a museum or found some cave paintings and knew that the art you were seeing might disappear tomorrow, would you take photos?
I’m sure your answer would be yes. Graffiti is art, and it shouldn’t be treated any differently.
My goal for these books is not to preserve every piece of graffiti I see, although I try, but to inspire others to also preserve what they see. Not only to preserve what you see now, but to be able to look bac…
Author: Silence Seven
Publisher: S7 Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 222
ISBN: 9798988423201
SoCal Freight Benching - Vol. 4
(2024)In this, my fourth book on freight train graffiti I share even more adventures out hunting for graffiti trackside with camera in hand. More artwork on freight trains that roll through Southern California. Boxcars, gondolas, grain cars, autoracks, tankers and more. There seems to be nothing a writer can't or won't add his/her name to.
This is artwork from well known, and lesser-known graffiti writers from all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. These pieces feature amazing lettering skills written in big, bold bright characters that are sometimes easy to decipher and sometimes almost impossible.
It's been a great journey so far and I've met some great…
Author: Silence Seven
Publisher: S7 Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9798988423225
SoCal Freight Benching - Vol. 5
(2024)Documenting the ephemeral art of freight train graffiti. 188 pages packed full of graffiti on trains. Full pages, half pages, quarter pages, and double page spreads. Photos include shots of boxcars, autoracks, stackers, hoppers, spine cars, reefers, etc. Trackside adventure tales, complaints about the hot weather, and new friends. Crusty boxcars to freshly painted pieces. It's all in here, including a glossary of graffiti terms so we both know what I'm talking about. From the desert to the rail yard, I'm documenting train and railroad art for current and future generations to enjoy.
Author: Silence Seven
Publisher: S7 Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 188
ISBN: 979-8-9884232-3-2
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