Sunday 29 March 2009

Martha Cooper, hip-hop photographer

Browsing through De Hop page I discovered Martha Cooper, previously unknown to me, therefore the more fascinating. Apparently she was one of the first photographers to document street art and graffiti artists in NY city, as early as the seventies.

Though that's not all she did, through her photos she gives an insight in the life of the NY children, playing in abandoned building sites. It's actually those early pictures that made her acquinted with the hip-hop culture and graffiti scene.




She bundled her work in several books: The Hip-Hop files, Subway Art and the more recent Street Play (2006). Defintely something I'll be looking for in the second hand book shops around Anneessens.

When Street Play was published Martha Cooper came to Brussels to speak about her photography and sign her book.



photos from Flickr

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