Ivan Northyn shoots first pictures of the Northern Railways (FN Line)...
The author immerses himself in the world of graffiti in 1994 and in September 1995 he begins taking pics of the painted carriages. A passion that, combined with the graffiti activity itself, will continue for eight long years specifically and almost exclusively on this railway line. During these years (1995 - 2003) Northyn immortalizes on film several hundred pieces and collects just as many receiving them from friends and colleagues. Although these photographs were never considered as an archiving work, it is certainly a real collection that accompanies the passion for the historicization of graffiti on the Northern Railways in a maniacal manner that includes many details unknown even to the graffiti writers who were among the most active on these railway lines.

The sporadic historicization activity continues through the collection of photographic materials sent by friends and other graffiti artists involved with the FN (Northern Railways).

After years of keeping it as a strictly personal passion, Northyn decides to share his collection publicly through an Instagram account entitled FNlinegendary; a portmanteau name that blends 'Line' and 'Legendary' invoking the true status of this railway recognized as such by the majority of Italian Graffiti Writers (and not only).

The account (even though we're talking about a micro sub-niche), immediately gains success among Writers from the 90s but also young people curious to know more about the history.

Thousands of photos and many anecdotes are regularly being posted. The fact is that the idea of ​​working on a possible book had never crossed his mind, but the author continues to receive several private messages requesting and almost craving for a publication of any sort, even just a 'zine'.

Having become aware of the importance of the material and historical knowledge available, the decision was made to immortalise it all in the most complete way possible and to do so through a book with very specific prerequisites.

Ivan Northyn teams up with Alberto Lagotto, a long time acquaintance who is a professional book editor and [surprise surprise] an avid Northern Railways expert in everything concerning the train material, models, technical aspects and much more!

1. For maximum transparency and openness to collaborations; over one hundred and thirty Graffiti Writers, Photographers and people who had in some way something to do with the FN (Northern Railways) in that historical period, were contacted.
   
   
2. Among these, about fifty protagonists were also invited to give an interview or tell their own testimony, in the end forty-two are now in the book. The process of stories and interviews served to ensure that the Graffiti Writers themselves told the history lived directly through their experiences, this process took about two and a half years.
   
   
3. At the same time, Northyn and Lagotto reconstructed on paper what was the FN rolling stock of the period between 1992 and 2002, managing to trace back about 90% of all the carriage numbers and the compositions of entire trains. This process, which lasted about a year, was imperative in order to reconstruct the entire history of graffiti on the FN in a monthly chronological order and give every reader the opportunity to; not only know the exact history but also to relive it visually as it happened, without biased editing, without aesthetic selections and completely impartial!
   This project is unique in its kind, this is the first book that reconstructs in great detail the history as it happened through a mathematical method at the base and then enriched and confirmed by the human stories that took place during those eleven years.
   Try to imagine if "Subway Art" or "The Faith of Graffiti" had been organized in a precise monthly chronological order; by flipping through the pages you could follow the stylistic evolution of each artist, see the state of the trains, the presence of the various crews and their friends and so on. And this is possible in FNdamentale 1992-2002.
   In addition to the photographic archives, personal notes and books of the railway sector, several dozen personal video cassettes and video material found on the internet were also analyzed; each carriage was patiently examined frame by frame and catalogued in the database for both of its sides whether they were covered by graffiti or not.
   
   
4. Several hundred 35mm negatives were scanned in a new resolution and quality with PlusTek OpticFilm 8100, and as many hundreds of photos were received from the writers themselves, some unpublished and some duplicates of material already available, this additional amount of material gave even more access to greater choices for more characteristic shots but also to be able to reconstruct the temporal spaces with more precision. Many photos also arrived in physical form, clusters and tangles of 35mm film, which were also recomposed in chronological order before the scans.
   
   
5. The first skeleton version of the book was ready between September and December 2021.
   The final layout version for the book was finalized in mid-2022. Furthermore, the entire part that dealt with the historical period from 1992 to 1996 was completely reworked; for a functional issue but also for the design itself where the look of the book took a new direction, more sober and aligned with the railway line.
   The final product contains 3,000 photographs; every single photograph has been improved and/or restored! At least a hundred photos have been completely reconstructed to be enjoyed as if they were digital photos, four hundred and eighty are the panoramic collages that were recreated to be able to relive the carriages in their original form, almost impossible to perceive at first glance.
   
   
6. Every single photo in the book is accompanied by a caption that describes in great detail the contents of the photo; the year of the piece, the author and his crews, the author of the photo and the period of the shot, the side of the carriage, the model, the serial number and the origin of the writer.
   
   
7. The thousands of photos and dozens of interviews are then set in the history of the railway line described in great detail by Alberto Lagotto, not only an extensive introduction from the foundation of this railway up to the 90s, but which continues to introduce each single chapter/year with informative technical sheets on what was happening in the rolling stock, the new directives, the lines under maintenance and other events of the railway company itself in order to understand what was happening in the real world in parallel to the world invented by the Graffiti Writers busy painting the sides of their trains.
   

In this live stream video conference Northyn shares some of the processes shortly described here above.
During the web talk, fragments of Excel sheets assembled to reconstruct the presence of all the graffiti artists active during the decade are demonstrated. And a photographic presentation of one of the carriages is also shown, taken as an example, to be able to relive the history of graffiti that are accumulating one on top of the other with the passing of the years during a decade.
This was also the first time it was officially announced to the public, albeit to a select number of attendees, that such a book was in the works. As such, a small preview of the early stages of layout and the title was revealed toward the end of the conference.

WATCH IT NOW (with English subtitles)

The official opening of the e-com store was anticipated by a soft launch on June 19th. All those subscribed to our Wait List were notified via email with a password and an exclusive discount to be the first to access and pre-order the book and merch.

Forty-eight hours later the store officially opened.

Within the first two and a half weeks of the preorder campaign we had secured the proceeds to go into production with MOQ, furthermore 150 copies of the limited edition were sold, in the following weeks the remaining 50 also sold out.

The preorder campaign continued until July 30th, achieving excellent success on our e-commerce and also securing many B2B orders in Europe and international distributors.

The production of books and t-shirts is started directly from the print files prior uploaded to our partners' servers.

The printing of the books is entrusted to one of the leaders in the sector for the printing of art and photography publications that boasts among their clients historical international publishers such as Harper Perennial, Rizzoli, Taschen and others.

The last QC before binding, at the headquarters of our printers, also required hand signing of the two hundred pages for the exclusive certificate of the limited edition.

The truck with the goods finally arrives at the warehouse of the 3PL company in Hong Kong which is responsible for packing the products in the appropriate mailers for all DTC orders and preparing everything necessary for shipping and customs clearance at the EU destination.

Instagram Live stream "FNDAMENTALE 1992-2002 SECRETS".

Several months after the sale of thousands of copies, the author interfaces with the now fans of the volume and with just as many interested in the work who have not yet purchased it in stores. In this special live broadcast on the Instagram profile FNlinegendary, the author of the volume shows some of the most important aspects of the historicization and restoration of the thousands of analog photographs. The discussion also touches on several painful points that concerned the creation, sale and distribution of such an enormous work but at the same time very niche even within a worldwide phenomenon such as graffiti on trains.

WATCH IT NOW (with English subtitles)