Martha Leticia Cooper

Name Tagging

In Name Tagging, graffiti photography legend Martha Cooper presents a dizzying array of "Hello My Name Is" stickers adorned with tags, the origin of graffiti and today's street art cultures. Cooper's introduction, artist interviews and photographs make clear how artists famed and anonymous take adva...

Tag Town: The Evolution of New York Graffiti Writing

Tags are designed street names, written in the public domain. They are one of the most despised phenomena since long hair on men. They have burrowed their way into the big cities of the world, working both to annoy and tell stories. Now, they tell the tale of how the biggest and most vital artist...

Martha Cooper: Postcards from New York City

Martha Cooper offers 16 postcards of her very own New York. With her trusty Nikon, she has documented memorable moments in her beloved New York, from the 70s to the present. She was there when the town was bankrupt and the crime rate high, and had a front seat as graffiti and Hip Hop culture develo...

New York State of Mind

In 1975, New York City was bankrupt. Crime was at an all-time high, street muggings were commonplace, buildings were crumbling, entire neighborhoods were abandoned by landlords as residents fled to the suburbs, and the federal government couldn’t care less. Nevertheless, intrepid documentary photogr...

Tokyo Tattoo 1970

The work of a traditional Japanese tattoo master in 1970 In 1970, photographer Martha Cooper came to Tokyo and immediately focused on documenting traditional Japanese tattooist Horibun I. Tokyo Tattoo 1970 is a book about the traditional art of tattooing and a portrait of a master artist.  Japanese...

Hip Hop Files: Photographs, 1979-1984

Hip hop culture emerged from an environment of extreme deprivation and decay in the South Bronx, New York City. The concept of pure invention-of creating something from nothing-was in full effect at the end of the 1970s as graffiti ("borrowed" spray paint), breaking (cardboard as dance floor), and o...

Going Postal

Postal stickers have long been a preferred substrate used by street artists to get up. Of course, because stickers from the US Postal Service, UPS, DHL and FEDEX are so readily available, many of these stickers get lost in the fray. That’s where graffiti photography legend Martha Cooper comes in. Sh...

Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition

During the 1970s and 80s photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured the environment and the imagination of a generation by documenting the burgeoning New York City graffiti movement. Now 25 years and more than a half a million copies later their bestselling book Subway Art is available ...

Subway Art

R.I.P: Memorial Wall Art

My Two Worlds

Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year

Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year

Business Lobbies: The Public Good and the Bottom Line

Subway Art

R.I.P: Memorial Wall Art