Interview With Martha Cooper

6 April 2005 No Comment

The name Martha Cooper has been appearing all over websites and magazines so I have wanted to find out more about this woman they call Martha. I mean there are a million Martha’s in the world but what makes this one so special? This woman was so generous to showcase her collection of photos that features basically everybody that was somebody during the golden age of hip hop. Her passion for photography has taken her across all borders and she just promised me that she will be setting out on her first ever South African safari in 2006. A.G will be there to welcome Martha to our seashores. Photography is her passion. Check out some exclusive pics that she was so generous to share with A.G…

Tell me more about Martha.

Photography is my life and New York City my town although I grew up south of here, in Baltimore, Maryland. I like to take photos of things that interest me and in the 80’s I was fortunate to be working as a photographer for a daily NY newspaper so I was out on the streets every day with my camera.

How did the interest come about?

I met a kid who showed me his notebook with sketches of graffiti pieces and he showed me where he had painted them on a wall. When I was enthusiastic, he offered to introduce me to a “king” who turned out to be Dondi. One thing led to another…

Tell me, it’s the 1970’s and a white girl is going to predominately black areas. What made you want to go up in those spots? Your camera could have been jacked, you could have been injured. There is a number of negative images that my mind can paint, what was it that brought you to document the hip hop movement?

Once I started shooting and started getting good photos, I became somewhat obsessed. I tried not to take too much equipment with me at any one time in case I got ripped off but luckily that never happened.

I was listening to a Krs One tape and in it he says not all hip hoppers can rhyme or DJ. I believe hip hop is to be found in a vast array of different areas that some people would not even associate as being part of the culture, do you feel your camera played an important role in showing other people what this art or culture is all about?

Actually I feel that the media in general played a role in documenting and packaging Hip Hop as a culture so that when it travelled overseas via magazine articles, documentary films & Hollywood (Beat Street), it arrived with all elements intact.

Lets talk about the “Hip hop Files” it’s a collage of pictures that ranges from the year “79 up till about “84. How did it come about that the pictures ended up in a book? And name some of the people that ended up in ya lens?

Basically the photos were sitting unpublished in file cabinets until a German Hip Hop music publisher, Akim Walta of MZEE, came looking for an Old Skool photo for a CD cover. When he saw how much material I had, he decided to publish a book. It took five years while he went around looking up a lot of the people in the photos. My intention was never to photograph well-known people—I am more a street photographer. But twenty years later, a number of the people in my photos have become icons—Lee Quninones, Dondi, Futura, Zephyr (who wrote the introduction to the book), Run DMC, Cold Crush Brothers, Crazy Legs etc.

The Kodak gurl that’s your pseudonym right? I also have interest in photography. Everybody ends up in my lens doesn’t matter if you sit on the toilet or having lunch what’s your typical day like?

Once a guy kicked in the window of my car after I had photographed some kids building a house in a vacant lot. I think he was a drug dealer and was in the background although I hadn’t seen him. I saw him starting to come after me and I was able to get in my car but he kicked in the front window as I was driving away.

Any particular area of interest when it comes to hip hop photography cos I know you did some subway pics.

Well I’m NOT particularly interested in shooting the music part, which most people think is the main part. The reason is that I don’t think still photos can really capture the essence of the music. You need words and sound for that. I prefer photos of art and dance.

You seen the golden age and you currently living in the time age where hip hop has become a pop culture. How’s your feelings on hip hops current state?

I’ve enjoyed seeing Hip Hop go from an unknown underground NYC culture to the predominate mainstream worldwide culture. Of course some people got exploited and some people were left out and others are dead. On the other hand, a lot of kids are now able to make careers from Hip Hop related activities and that’s a positive thing. As a documenter, I’m sort of standing by and watching to see what’s happening next.

Nika mailed me from Germany and told me about the book you guys are doing with the focus being on B-gurlz, tell me why B-gurlz only and when will the book be published?

We have been working hard for the past six months on documenting B*Girlz. There are now women in every area of Hip Hop—MCs, DJs, Graf Artists etc. but we are concentrating on B*Girlz because suddenly we have found so many great breakers and we think they have been ignored by the media.

When will you be setting foot in South Africa you encountered a South African b-girl in Germany that alone should be prove that there is a hip hop movement running around in Africa any chance that you will visit us soon?

Well there’s always a chance we’ll get there soon but we don’t have any definite plans. We gotta save up for the plane ticket.

Thanks for your time and pictures that you shared from the up and coming book, what would Martha’s final words be to everybody that’s part of this big movement we call hip hop? One last thing what film do you think is best Kodak or Fujicolor?

Final words? Thanx to all Hip Hop heads—you’ve given me a great life. Film?? I only shoot digitally now!

AfricasGateway would like to thanks Martha for the pics check her upcoming book that will feature more pictures that focuses on B*gurlz

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