Martha Cooper

Inspiration.

Martha Cooper, a photographer who documented the New York graffiti scene of the 1970's & 80', she photographed the tagging scene back when there were just a handfull of people out there doing it. This was the absolute beginning of what you call street art today & martha recorded it tirelessly. She would sit for hours waiting for one train to pass after getting a call from a writer letting her know it was coming. There would be only one shot for a photo since it was most likely to be buffed out the following day. Martha did this out of curiousness, pure interest and love. She thought this was a movement of the minute. She had no idea that her lens was capturing the very beginning of one the greatest art movements of our time. The writers, the subway, the underground gatherings for writers, & the local urban culture

which was so large in New York, during the birth of Graffiti, Rap & the Community of kids, teens & art which brought them together. Martha Cooper was warmly welcomed into the underground world of

New York where she documented what many people seemed to miss. She documented what wasn't yet known to the world. Through her photographs, over the years she has been my main inspiration.