18th May 2017

Martha Cooper, Art of the City

From 1977 to 1980, Martha Cooper was a staff photographer at the New York Post. While on daily assignments throughout the city she was intrigued by the ingenuity of unsupervised kids playing amidst the rubble of disintegrating neighbourhoods. Her interest in documenting creative play led to a chance encounter with HE3, a young graffiti artist tagging in the Bronx.

He asked Martha if she “wanted to meet a king” and took her to meet legendary street artist Dondi. Soon after, Dondi introduced Cooper to other famous graffiti artists of the 70s and the 80s, including Daze, Futura and Seen. She started to accompany them on their late night art-driven missions with the goal of documenting their work. Cooper says, “Until then I had not really understood how they had been able to paint such large pieces — often covering an entire subway car — in one night. Or how they could climb up to the top of the train and paint.”

Her photographs of trains rolling through New York City (mostly in the South Bronx) preserve paintings that only existed for a matter of days, or, in some cases, hours. After being notified of a fresh piece by the writers, Cooper would camp out in a vacant lot, sometimes for up to 5 hours, and wait for special cars to roll by. On May 31, 1980, Cooper accompanied Dondi to the New Lots train yard and watched him paint “Children of the Grave Part 3”. Over the course of one night, she photographed the entire process of him completing this full-car masterpiece, capturing in stunning detail exactly how a writer managed to get his work onto the side of the trains, a process that was a mystery to most straphangers at that time.

On May 31, 1980, Cooper accompanied Dondi to the New Lots train yard and watched him paint “Children of the Grave Part 3”. Over the course of one night, she photographed the entire process of him completing this full-car masterpiece, capturing in stunning detail exactly how a writer managed to get his work onto the side of the trains, a process that was a mystery to most straphangers at that time.

“Graffiti has it’s own set of rules and aesthetics, and basically spray cans and markers are the tools used, and the techniques are different than street art.”

“What got me into it was the illegal part: the fact that these kids were risking a lot to do their art and that they weren’t getting paid for it, they weren’t thinking that they were going to make money, they were doing it for each other.”

“It’s an antidote against the advertising that’s covering the city, there’s so much commercial advertising. At least with graffiti you know that the artist had to be there physically to put up their art.”

A current exhibition at Steven Kasher Gallery (ending June 3rd) features over 30 new editions of her legendary street art photographs. Also featured are new editions of 1970s and 1980s black and white photographs from her books New York State of Mind, Street Play and Tokyo Tattoo. Over four decades, Cooper has explored creativity as seen on the streets of New York and abroad, documenting DIY culture and how it shapes our understanding of “what is art?” Cooper has chronicled street art from its earliest days and has created some of the most iconic and well-known images of this global phenomenon.

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