Street Play

Martha Cooper's photos take us through the Alphabet City of the late 70s as the area was about to undergo extensive urban renewal -- a process that is still continuing today. At the time, the neighborhood had more than its share of drug dealers and petty criminals, and the landscape seemed ugly and forbidding. But to the children who grew up there, the abandoned buildings and rubble-strewn lots made perfect playgrounds, providing raw materials and open space for unsupervised play. A crumbling tenement housed a secret clubhouse, rooftops became private aviaries, and a pile of trash might be a source for treasure.

Author: Martha Cooper
Publisher: From Here to Fame
Published: 02/01/2006
Pages: 124
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.20h x 8.20w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9783937946153

About the Author
Cooper, Martha: - Martha Cooper is a photographer who has specialized in shooting urban vernacular art and architecture for twenty-five years. Her first book Subway Art (Thames & Hudson,1984), a legendary collaboration with Henry Chalfant, is still in print. Martha's photos have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries and published in innumerable magazines from National Geographic to Vibe.