Martha Cooper is an American photographer and photojournalist. Her photographs are dedicated to the visual arts and anthropology. She is the most famous photographer covering the New York graffiti scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Published in publications such as National Geographic , Natural History , Audubon, and Art News .
| Marta Cooper | |
|---|---|
| Martha cooper | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Baltimore |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Occupation | Photographer, photojournalist |
| Site | |
Biography
After graduating from Grinnel College in 1963 [2] [3] , she taught English in Thailand , being a volunteer in the Peace Corps . After 2 years of teaching, she went on a motorcycle from Bangkok to Oxford (over 20,000 km). There she began to study ethnography and received a diploma.
At the end of the 1960s, she trained in National Geographic magazine, in the 1970s she worked as a full-time photographer at the New York Post .
Once, when she was making a series of photos on the theme of “children's games”, a young writer, HE3 [4] showed her his drawings, which she liked so much that she decided to take pictures of graffiti works [5] .
Unlike most documentary photographers who want to isolate photographed objects, to get rid of context, Cooper on the contrary photographed drawings, capturing the environment in which they were. So, her famous series of photos of elevated subway lines for the most part contained the cityscape. Photos of the artists themselves were also not uncommon, often in the process of drawing graffiti. She won the trust of one of the most respected writers of the time, Dondi , Duro , Lady Pink, which gave her the opportunity to capture many important moments in the history of spray art .
The 1983 Style of War documentary used photographs authored by Martha Cooper.
In 1984 , a joint project of Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant , the Subway Art book, was published. This is one of the first books that tells about the subculture of graffiti, its history, with descriptions of terms, slang , etc. Subsequently, the book was reprinted several times in various countries.
Books
- Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant . Subway art . - 1999 reprint. - London: Thames & Hudson , 1984. - 106 p. - ISBN 0-500-27320-0 . (inaccessible link)
- Martha Cooper, Joseph Skiorra. RIP: New York Spraycan Memorials . - London: Thames & Hudson , 1994 .-- 96 p. - ISBN 978-0500277768 .
- Martha Cooper. Hip Hop Files: Photographs 1979-1984 . - Berlin: From Here to Fame , 2004 .-- 240 p. - ISBN 978-3937946023 .
- Martha Cooper. Street play - Berlin: From Here to Fame, 2005 .-- 121 p. - ISBN 978-3937946160 .
- Nika Kramer , Marta Cooper (photographer). We B * Girlz. - New York: Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment Books, 2005 .-- 153 p. - ISBN 978-1576872697 .
- Martha Cooper. New York State of Mind. - 2008 .-- 96 s. - ISBN 978-1576874080 .
- Martha Cooper. Tag Town: The Origins of Writing . - Stockholm: DOKUMENT , 2009 .-- 112 p. - ISBN 978-9185639052 . Archived June 21, 2009 on Wayback Machine
- Martha Cooper. Going Postal: Mailing Label Street Art. - New York: Mark Batty Publisher , 2009 .-- 96 p. - ISBN 978-0979966651 .
Notes
- ↑ Union List of Artist Names
- ↑ FLAH! (English) // Vibe: magazine. - october 2004 .-- P. 159.
- ↑ Martha Cooper Interview @ 149st
- ↑ in latin letters: h, e and number 3
- ↑ interview with Martha Cooper
Links
- Martha Cooper Blog
- Website dedicated to B-Girlz
- Website about women photographers
- New York City Photo Site
- Profile at149st.com
- December 2008 Interview
- Martha Cooper Interviews at the Presentation of the Street Play Book in Brussels