Martha: A Picture Story

Martha: A Picture Story takes a joyous look behind the lens and life of New York-based photographer, Martha Cooper. Revered for introducing the world to graffiti art and culture via her co-authored book ‘Subway Art’,

Cooper is venerated by a generation of new artists and creatives including the world’s foremost practitioners of the once subterranean, now global art movement. Bristling with energy throughout all of its 82 minutes, Selina Miles’ documentary follows Martha through the streets, across rooftops, and along subway platforms, slowing enough to allow for moments of candor, laughter, and reflection.

Badly seeking a career in photography, Cooper joined the Peace Corps armed with a Rolleiflex camera and a vision of a longer-term goal of entering the male-dominated world of photo-journalism. Spotting an advertisement for an internship at National Geographic, she applied and successfully became the first woman to join the program.

Miles’ film deftly takes us through the high-low, and risk-reward, balancing act of Cooper’s professional career, gently revealing aspects of her personal life along the way. We see the journey to New York to become a “real photographer”, the less than edifying assignments and cold realities of editorial control and commissioning. All of which took compelled her to further explore a city in decline, to produce work that was honest and equally compelling in its subject matter. Her fascination with the playful innovation of everyday life would take her to the very heart of culture, where she emphasized taking pictures that “show people rising above their environment in one way or another.”

As the documentary builds, we see how Cooper’s central role in the documentation of graffiti art and Hip-Hop culture would be written into history. Away from graffiti culture, we also learn more about equally compelling projects undertaken in other parts of the City, and back in her hometown of Baltimore.

There are moments in A Picture Story where we sense Cooper is uneasy with the adulation that invites descriptions such as ‘iconic’ and legendary’. There is also an awareness that she remains largely unknown within New York’s photo gallery community. These are small details that form part of the overall portrait of the artist who is entirely satisfied with her career path and the opportunities for adventure that emerged as a consequence. Martha: A Picture Story, is a fitting tribute to both Cooper, and the lives that she has touched and changed through her work, and willingness to play in the streets.

Movie Rating: 4 stars.

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About Author

Errol Donald

Errol is an experienced arts practitioner with an appreciation for creativity emerging from community settings. Acknowledged as a pioneer and central figure within the development of UK graffiti art he remains passionate about its impact across the global creative and cultural landscapes and draws upon lived experiences when speaking to the intersections with culture, human potential, and the politics of identity.

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