but for a long time it seemed as though the world had moved on. Cooper’s memory is as long as her archive. It was one of the earliest creative relationships I had, and I didn’t even know I was having it. At the time I was too young to appreciate what it meant to have someone documenting your career at such a young age. She traveled to different parts of the city. “She documented all the early work and she never asked for anything. “Martha was the first adult that really took notice of what we were doing,” says the graff pioneer and founding creative director of Def Jam. I’m glad she came along.”Ĭey Adams agrees. “Most amazing is that she found value in what we were doing, her documentation a testimony possessing such extraordinary evidentiary value in the case against us just being poor, truant, rowdy vandals. Marty was there to capture the wild things in their natural habitat, and capture she did,” SKEME reveals. “Our shots were neither rehearsed nor coerced, neither directed nor suggested. Just put me on the plane,” Cooper says with a laugh. “Half the time I don’t even know where I am going. Today, the letters arrive by email, detailing the possibility of paid work documenting graff everywhere from Tahiti to Thailand, India to Portugal, in recognition of Cooper’s influence and legacy. They penned letters in homeroom before the bell went off, thanking Cooper for the inspiration and inviting her to Chicago (or Kent, or Soweto) to photograph their work. Kids got their start tracing styles from the book and then trying their hand at a piece with cans of freshly stolen spray paint. Known as the “graffiti bible,” Subway Art spread the word around the globe from Cleveland to Copenhagen, inspiring a new generation of writers to live the life. Now freelancing full-time, Cooper gave graffiti the National Geographic treatment: in-depth, longform, exquisitely detailed reportage-the best of which went into Subway Art, which she co-authored with Henry Chalfant in 1984. Though sporty and petite, with a pixie haircut, Cooper was a professional photographer in her 30s at the time, singularly focused on her goal. “I picked a very good time to quit the Post.” With her newfound freedom, Cooper became an integral figure on the burgeoning graffiti scene, her passion for her subjects matched by her boundless energy, which continues to this very day after more than 70 years of making photographs. “I said, ‘Fuck it, I just want to do this,’” she recalls. She had been hearing about new trains being painted up in the Bronx-but she had to go to work. In 1980, she had been working as a staff photographer for the New York Post for three years, zipping around the city in a beat-up Honda Civic. Take it from Cooper, who knows better than anyone else. It’s the kind of energy that just might change your life. Is that the smell of spray paint? In a Martha Cooper photograph, seeing is more than believing-it’s a high you can’t find anywhere else. You can all but hear the train thunder along the tracks and feel the ground rumble beneath your feet while a gust of wind hits your face. Almost all of the wall has been removed and it only exists in places such as Potsdamer Platz, the East Side Gallery, and Bernauer Straße many segments are now exhibited in other countries see List of Berlin Wall segments.With a single snap of the shutter, Martha Cooper captured the searing rush of seeing a whole car make its debut on the line after being painted all night. Because the wall was open to everyone, there were no restrictions on what artists could put on the wall. Much of the artwork was not claimed by artists and remains anonymous. The Berlin Wall was one of the largest canvases in the world. The West Berlin side of the wall had artwork completely covering the wall, while the East Berlin side was kept blank because people were not permitted to get close enough to the eastside of the wall to paint anything. Graffiting on the wall became popular for artists from all over the world and a place where tourists would go and admire the artwork. In the 1980s, the wall was reconstructed and made 14 feet (4.3 m) tall. All the differences between the countries made it a perfect place for people to express their opinions, especially on their preferences and dislikes. The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 to separate West Berlin and East Berlin during the Cold War. The Berlin Wall with graffiti art on the West Berlin side and the "Death Strip" on the East
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