The shoot I did in the train yard last weekend was one of, if not the most fun shoots I've done yet. It was similar to most trips I take with my camera, being in a more rundown area where most people wouldn't go. Trying to see things most people don't see, or notice. This was different though being that I had a more specific subject to shoot. Being able to shoot the graffiti artist instead of just the art made it different. It was the same dumb hood-rat kind of stuff we did when we were kids, but somehow legitimized by making art. Each of us. It's a world and a culture I want to try to capture more of.

That being so, I went on a search for photographers after the same thing and found one of the most impressive people I've come across yet. Martha Cooper. I've kept an eye out for more female artists but (ignorantly) didn't expect to find one here. I'm not sure why.

Her dad owned a camera store in Baltimore and gave her a camera in 1946 when she was a little kid. So shes been making photos for half of the life span of modern photography, as she reasons it, since the first Kodak in 1888. So do that math. Shes in her seventies and is huge in the street art world. I love how old people can surprise you. Her big book was Subway Art, published in 1984. Her work really shows the feel of the graffiti/ hip-hop/ Bboy scene in the cities in the early 80's. Buy beyond that stuff, her older work, Street Play, done in black and white is killer. Showing kids in NYC's lower east side making the most fun out of a poor neighborhood. Playing with tires and jumping off fire escapes onto mattresses. It's another culture she was able to make you feel like you're in through a few images.

She's by far one of my favorite artists I've come across so far, but without a doubt she's the one I would like to meet the most. I imagine hanging out with her for a day would be a blast.

http://www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/martha_cooper/