Lei Takanashi is currently a Staff Writer for Complex’s Style section. Before joining Complex, he covered hip-hop, streetwear, graffiti and New York City culture for publications such as New York Magazine, Mass Appeal, 12ozProphet, and Grailed. A born and raised New Yorker, Lei fell in love with graffiti as a teenager and started taking graffiti flicks on Instagram as @CrookNYC. Today, his account continues to document the current state of New York City graffiti while also sharing archival texts and artifacts to contextualize New York graffiti’s rich past.
Clayton Patterson’s Front Door: Residents and Writers features rarely-seen images from the renowned photographer, who has documented the unique cultural ecosystem of the Lower East Side for over 40 years.
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