MARTHA: A PICTURE STORY
****
Director: Selina Miles
Screenwriters: Davis Coombe and Drew Macdonald
Principal cast:
Martha Cooper
Dondi
Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo (Os Gêmeos)
1UP Crew
Shepard Fairey
Country: Australia/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 82 mins.
Australian release date: 28 November 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 11 November 2019.
Martha Cooper is a New York photographer who recognised the importance of graffiti art when it first emerged in the Big Apple in the late ‘70s. Over a period of five years she took thousands of photographs recording what she felt was probably a fleeting art form, not realising at the time that it would become a global phenomenon, loved by many but hated by the authorities. Australian director Selina Miles charts Cooper’s career in her well-researched documentary, Martha: A Picture Story, revealing the incredible resilience and passion of the photographer who has recorded the renegade art form for posterity. As it turned out, Cooper was prescient but she wasn’t thinking about the future when she shot many of her images. A rebel herself, she explained her motivation when she said, “1977, the Bronx was burning down. No one really wanted to write that graffiti was an interesting thing. But I don’t want to shoot something that’s done with permission. It’s an outlaw art. That’s what makes it thrilling.”
Cooper initially had aspirations to be a war photographer but her professional career commenced as an intern at National Geographic, very much a male domain at the time, when she was 20. A subsequent job as a staff photographer at the New York Post gave her an insight into street kids and she started hanging out with them, capturing the essence of their existence. In the 1970s, as graffiti emerged, Cooper became enthralled by the images. She and fellow photographer Henry Chalfant eventually published (in 1984) their collection of photos in a book titled Subway Art. Initially a failure (they couldn’t get any interest from a US publisher), today the work is considered the definitive text for street artists and is constantly being reprinted; it’s become the bible for graffiti daubers from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro.
Miles takes us on Cooper’s journey from the early days to the present. Now in her late seventies, Cooper still exudes a passion and energy for detailing and observing graffiti. The doc contains terrific early footage of Cooper roaming the streets with kids from impoverished NYC neighbourhoods, familiar enough with them to be regarded as almost one of the gang. It’s this intimacy that enabled her to capture some of her archetypal images but we are also shown scenes from much later in her life and she’s still doing much the same thing. She is filmed going on a crazy night ride with 1UP, a group of German graffiti artists who spray paint images on the U-Bahn in Berlin. In Cooper’s eyes it is thrilling to be part of such sprees, because she considers risk-taking as crucial to the art form. During this sequence, you begin to fully understand the mindset that goes with street art; it is dangerous, controversial and intoxicating and Simon Njoo’s energetic edit does a great job of reflecting its risky nature.
Screened at the Sydney Film Festival this year, Martha: A Picture Story, went on to win the Audience Award. It’s easy to see why this diminutive woman became enthralled by the diversity of an art form that created canvases on the sides of buildings, walls and railway cars, giving many artists total freedom of expression. Miles explains, “In telling Martha’s story this film seeks to examine the way we document and broadcast our lives, whether through the application of spray paint to a train carriage, posting a selfie online, or by publishing a historic book. At the core of the human condition is a need to proclaim our existence, to say ‘I am here’. This is what drove the first graffiti artists.” And it seems to be what drives the indefatigable Martha Cooper, too.
Screenwriters: Davis Coombe and Drew Macdonald
Principal cast:
Martha Cooper
Dondi
Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo (Os Gêmeos)
1UP Crew
Shepard Fairey
Country: Australia/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 82 mins.
Australian release date: 28 November 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 11 November 2019.
Martha Cooper is a New York photographer who recognised the importance of graffiti art when it first emerged in the Big Apple in the late ‘70s. Over a period of five years she took thousands of photographs recording what she felt was probably a fleeting art form, not realising at the time that it would become a global phenomenon, loved by many but hated by the authorities. Australian director Selina Miles charts Cooper’s career in her well-researched documentary, Martha: A Picture Story, revealing the incredible resilience and passion of the photographer who has recorded the renegade art form for posterity. As it turned out, Cooper was prescient but she wasn’t thinking about the future when she shot many of her images. A rebel herself, she explained her motivation when she said, “1977, the Bronx was burning down. No one really wanted to write that graffiti was an interesting thing. But I don’t want to shoot something that’s done with permission. It’s an outlaw art. That’s what makes it thrilling.”
Cooper initially had aspirations to be a war photographer but her professional career commenced as an intern at National Geographic, very much a male domain at the time, when she was 20. A subsequent job as a staff photographer at the New York Post gave her an insight into street kids and she started hanging out with them, capturing the essence of their existence. In the 1970s, as graffiti emerged, Cooper became enthralled by the images. She and fellow photographer Henry Chalfant eventually published (in 1984) their collection of photos in a book titled Subway Art. Initially a failure (they couldn’t get any interest from a US publisher), today the work is considered the definitive text for street artists and is constantly being reprinted; it’s become the bible for graffiti daubers from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro.
Miles takes us on Cooper’s journey from the early days to the present. Now in her late seventies, Cooper still exudes a passion and energy for detailing and observing graffiti. The doc contains terrific early footage of Cooper roaming the streets with kids from impoverished NYC neighbourhoods, familiar enough with them to be regarded as almost one of the gang. It’s this intimacy that enabled her to capture some of her archetypal images but we are also shown scenes from much later in her life and she’s still doing much the same thing. She is filmed going on a crazy night ride with 1UP, a group of German graffiti artists who spray paint images on the U-Bahn in Berlin. In Cooper’s eyes it is thrilling to be part of such sprees, because she considers risk-taking as crucial to the art form. During this sequence, you begin to fully understand the mindset that goes with street art; it is dangerous, controversial and intoxicating and Simon Njoo’s energetic edit does a great job of reflecting its risky nature.
Screened at the Sydney Film Festival this year, Martha: A Picture Story, went on to win the Audience Award. It’s easy to see why this diminutive woman became enthralled by the diversity of an art form that created canvases on the sides of buildings, walls and railway cars, giving many artists total freedom of expression. Miles explains, “In telling Martha’s story this film seeks to examine the way we document and broadcast our lives, whether through the application of spray paint to a train carriage, posting a selfie online, or by publishing a historic book. At the core of the human condition is a need to proclaim our existence, to say ‘I am here’. This is what drove the first graffiti artists.” And it seems to be what drives the indefatigable Martha Cooper, too.