Martha Cooper
United States (1943)
Biennale Images Vevey
2014
Subway Art
Subway Art
At the turn of the 1980s, Martha Cooper photographed the first graffiti covering the walls and trains of the New York subway. Now iconic among the street art community, the Subway Art series documents outstandingly well the birth of this form of artistic expression and the emergence of hip-hop culture. In a mise en abyme, the images were exhibited along the railway underpass, a well-known spot for Vevey taggers. Over the course of the Festival, the street reclaimed its rights over these images as some were torn out or covered with graffiti, perhaps by long-time admirers.
