Q &A with Martha Cooper from the SPACE ISSUE by Kate Monro

It doesn’t feel like a stretch to call Martha Cooper an early pioneer of graffiti art.

Driving through the Lower East Side in 1970’s New York, searching for ways to use up her film before developing it at the end of each day, a chance meeting with a child called Edwin opened a portal to another world. Edwin showed Martha his notebook full of drawings and asked why she didn’t photograph the graffiti on the streets of New York. She answered the call and today, Martha has produced a body of work that has been exhibited globally.

Just as musicians scratched vinyl and gave birth to new genres of music, teenagers took spray cans and placed art in unusual places. Martha’s eye celebrates the creation of visual imagery for the hell of doing it, with little endgame or agenda in sight. Art with roots so strong; it wills itself into existence. Her images are also testament to the mythical worlds that children create when they are allowed to get bored. Set against a back-drop of a New York that no longer exists, wire fences transform into climbing frames and sidewalks become canvases for small hands. Martha is still searching for mythical worlds in urban environments. Lena’s husband found her playing Pokemon Go in Stockholm and asked if we could quiz her. Lucky for us, she said yes.

You are highly respected amongst the worlds’ most famous street art/ graffiti artists; why do you think this is? And how have you gained their trust and support?

I gained their trust by being seriously interested in their work, by not revealing artists who wanted to remain anonymous, and by taking photos of their work that were often difficult to capture. 

A lot of people don’t consider street art as an art form and many people, including politicians, see graffiti as something ugly and destructive. What are your feelings?

Like any art, some street art and graffiti is beautiful and some is, in fact, destructive. Some is exciting and some is boring. I’m interested in seeing the lengths people go to, to transform public space and the tools and techniques they use.

Do you think that our shared public spaces should be used as a canvas? Do you think it enriches people’s lives?

In general, yes.

No one asks permission from us, the people living in the cities/spaces, to display huge advertising/billboards….

Exactly. At least when you see graffiti and street art, you know that it was placed there by hand and it’s not trying to make you buy something.

Do you think there should be legal spaces within the cities for producing street art, and advertising, or do you feel it’s more interesting when they exist side by side?

To me illegal art is more interesting but I appreciate legal as well. The more spaces for art the better.

Looking at your pictures of kids playing in the streets of New York, it looks very spontaneous and free. Do you think it’s still like that? Or is the play more organized and controlled by authorities?

There are fewer vacant lots for unsupervised play in New York City than in the 70’s and early 80’s but kids can be creative pretty much anywhere if their parents let them.

What do you think compels people to document what they see in the street? What inspired you to start recording what you saw?

I can’t speak for other people. There are probably many different reasons. My father was an amateur photographer and owned a camera store. He gave me a camera and took me on “camera runs” with the Baltimore Camera Club when I was very young. We went around looking for pictures and for many years I thought that was what photography was about.

Although things are changing fast, historically women have occupied a lot less space when it comes to the creation of art. But I wonder if being a woman has helped you in your work?

Since the invention of photography, there were always women shooting professionally. Check out my website about my collection of images of anonymous female photographers.  I was lucky to decide to make photography my career at a time when newspapers and magazines were under pressure to hire women because of equal opportunity laws in  the US. I was the first woman to be given a summer internship  as a photographer at National Geographic and also the first to be hired by the New York Post. In those cases, being a woman was an advantage. In other cases, I was probably allowed to take some photos because I appeared less intimidating to the subjects.

The city versus the countryside: do you have a preference one type of landscape over the other?

I’m an urban person through and through.  I find cities fascinating and the countryside a bit boring.

At what stage are you in with your relationship with New York? How do you feel about each other now?

New York City is my favourite place in the world and it has given me a lot of love in return.

Do you set out with a specific question in mind when you hit the streets with your camera? Or do you wait for the streets to inspire/talk?

A little of both. I often have general ideas of what I am looking for but I am alert to whatever I see.

I’m always struck by the relationship between people and animals in New York. How there are so many humans squeezed into such a small space - and more dog owners than anywhere I’ve ever been. What role do you think animals play in the life of New Yorkers?

Are there really more dogs in NYC per capita than in other places or whether it just seems that way because there are so many people jammed into a small space? I am a cat person myself and as a woman living alone, she is a constant warm, friendly, fun presence—a stress reliever.

I felt like I was going on a rocket ship to moon when I first visited New York in 1996. It was an out of body experience when I finally stepped out of a taxi, to be in a place so familiar from films but never experienced in real time before. Are there places and spaces that you dream about visiting, that give you that out of body feeling? What are they? Did they live up to expectations?

No—I cannot say that there are any specific places where I would like to go. In the past I have travelled far and wide to see something I was interested in such as dovecotes on the island of Tinos in Greece, the Easter flower carpets of Antigua, Guatemala or the Maroon painted houses in Suriname. Mostly these places lived up to my expectations but there is presently nothing particular on my list. If there were, I would just go.

I noticed a wild strawberry plant growing out of the cracks in the paving in my step-father’s garden in London recently. There is something about street art that inspires a similar sensation. Something beautiful that thrives, but perhaps not in the space its ‘supposed’ to. I wonder if that’s what drove you in your pursuit of graffiti art? To ask the public to re-evaluate their idea of ‘beauty’?

My interest in graffiti grew out of my interest in seeing kids playing creatively without parental supervision. I was fascinated by the idea that kids had developed a sophisticated art form with their own set of aesthetics that only they understood.

How do you engage with the people that you want to photograph when you’re in their space? Do you have special ways to make to make people feel ok about having their photograph taken?

I just try to be friendly and non-threatening. When possible I give them photos.

What is beautiful to you?

Something creative, original and made by hand.

What is it about Pokémon go that you enjoy so much :)

I like to make collections and Pokémon Go is about finding and collecting Pokémon.

Photography by Martha Cooper. Interview by Kate Monro. 5th June 2017