Martha Cooper

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. Shooting the origins of hip-hop and graffiti cultures since the late 1970s in New York City, and later all over the world, Cooper’s well-trained eyes know how to recognize deft sticker art. Going Postal is a collection of more than 200 photographs of some of Cooper’s favorite handmade postal stickers from around the world, done by both better-known and anonymous artists. Going Postal documents how an old-school method has burgeoned into a rich facet of the world’s graffiti cultures.

In 1984, photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured the imagination of a generation with Subway Art, a groundbreaking book documenting the work of graffiti writers who illegally painted subway cars in New York City. The 2009 edition of the book is now available in a new, slightly reduced format. Henry Chalfant's images of the trains retain their impact, while Martha Cooper's narrative pictures tell the story. In the introductions, the authors recall how they gained entry to the New York graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s and describe the techniques that they used to photograph it. Afterwords report how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded, and chronicle the end of the subway graffiti scene in the late 1980s and its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. This is an essential book for all fans of graffiti, stunning photography and 1980s-cool.

Vytvoření originálního podpisu - tagu - je základním činem každého writera. Fotografie v této knize zachycují kořeny newyorského stylu graffiti. Fotografie doplňují rozhovory s pionýry graffiti jako je Blade, Part 1 a Snake 1. Text v angličitině. Graffiti has spread to the far corners of the earth and in the process has become the biggest art movement in history and every graffiti writer began his or her writing career with a tag. Developing an original, consistently written name is the primary act for a writer. The photos in Tag Town, dating back to the 60’s, introduce us to the origins of New York style graffiti. Tags and pieces share a common heritage and by understanding one, you can understand the other. For those who learn to read tags, a world of aesthetic expression and communication opens up. Tags are a universal language – the jazz of lettering. Tag Town also contains rare photos of work on the street by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, artists whose tag-inspired work helped found the rapidly growing street art movement. The accompanying text is based on interviews with New York graffiti pioneers Blade, Part 1 and Snake 1. Martha Cooper has specialized in photographing urban art and architecture in New York City for thirty years.

Vytvoření originálního podpisu - tagu - je základním činem každého writera. Fotografie v této knize zachycují kořeny newyorského stylu graffiti. Fotografie doplňují rozhovory s pionýry graffiti jako je Blade, Part 1 a Snake 1. Text v angličitině. Graffiti has spread to the far corners of the earth and in the process has become the biggest art movement in history and every graffiti writer began his or her writing career with a tag. Developing an original, consistently written name is the primary act for a writer. The photos in Tag Town, dating back to the 60’s, introduce us to the origins of New York style graffiti. Tags and pieces share a common heritage and by understanding one, you can understand the other. For those who learn to read tags, a world of aesthetic expression and communication opens up. Tags are a universal language – the jazz of lettering. Tag Town also contains rare photos of work on the street by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, artists whose tag-inspired work helped found the rapidly growing street art movement. The accompanying text is based on interviews with New York graffiti pioneers Blade, Part 1 and Snake 1. Martha Cooper has specialized in photographing urban art and architecture in New York City for thirty years.