Martha Cooper is an amazing, stand out woman in contemporary street level art and culture.  Saying she is an anthropologist and photojournalist does not even hint at the radical, loving force of her dedication.  Her documentation of subway graffiti through out the 1970s and 1980s is pretty much the biggest, best and most exhaustive of its kind.  She has an absolute sincere love of graffiti - admiring it for its handmade quality, truth and renegade quality.

The act of her documentation and the spreading of her photos went on to influence the whole world of graffiti culture that has come since.  And that is no exaggeration.  It sold half a million copies.

Back 25 years, kids didn't have easy access to photography (cameras and film processing was prohibitively expensive) - so they embraced Martha and trusted her voyeuristic project - and called her endearingly Kodakgirl (K-Girl). 

Subway Art - the book she did with Henry Chalfant - has recently been re-issued in a bigger format with 70 extra photos as a celebration of an extremely influential piece of publishing.  It is a super sized deluxe format that will have collectors crying for joy.  Great shots of trains, fashions and photo portraits of significant artists from the day.

Selling locally for about AU$60.

You can check out Martha's blog here.

-  Gemma Jones (aka paintergirl)