Overview
In 1975, New York City was bankrupt. Crime was at an all-time high, street muggings were commonplace, buildings were crumbling, entire neighborhoods were abandoned by landlords as residents fled to the suburbs, and the federal government couldn’t care less. Nevertheless, intrepid documentary photographer Martha Cooper was inexorably drawn to this embattled but irresistible urban mecca.Moving from the quiet shores of Narragansett, Rhode Island, Cooper fell in love with lawless New York, where the citizens reveled in the “anything goes” atmosphere and prided themselves on their survival strategies. She zipped around the city in a beat-up Honda Civic with no qualms about making U turns to shoot a quick photo or double-park whenever, wherever. Her friends complained that she drove like a cabbie and Cooper took that as a supreme compliment.
In 1977, Cooper landed a staff position at the New York Post, and for the next three years she canvassed the city daily, shooting every kind of assignment imaginable. From blizzards to beaches, rooftops to Central Park, Cooper’s photographs, collected here for the first time, reveal the true New York State of Mind: one of unstoppable optimism and unflappable endurance in the face of any situation.
Synopsis
In 1975, New York City was bankrupt. Crime was at an all-time high, street muggings were commonplace, buildings were crumbling, entire neighborhoods were abandoned by landlords as residents fled to the suburbs, and the federal government couldn’t care less. Nevertheless, intrepid documentary photographer Martha Cooper was inexorably drawn to this embattled but irresistible urban mecca.
Moving from the quiet shores of Narragansett, Rhode Island, Cooper fell in love with lawless New York, where the citizens reveled in the “anything goes” atmosphere and prided themselves on their survival strategies. She zipped around the city in a beat-up Honda Civic with no qualms about making U turns to shoot a quick photo or double-park whenever, wherever. Her friends complained that she drove like a cabbie and Cooper took that as a supreme compliment.
In 1977, Cooper landed a staff position at the New York Post, and for the next three years she canvassed the city daily, shooting every kind of assignment imaginable. From blizzards to beaches, rooftops to Central Park, Cooper’s photographs, collected here for the first time, reveal the true New York State of Mind: one of unstoppable optimism and unflappable endurance in the face of any situation.
Publishers Weekly
Documentary photographer Cooper's exquisite and eclectic portraits of New York City in 1975 create a world at once removed from and inextricably tied to the soaring crime rates and crumbling neighborhoods of the 1970s. Without captions or titles, Cooper's crisp black and white photos document everything from a mother and child in Central Park to an unself-conscious naked man being interviewed on the street by a television reporter. Despite a conspicuous lack of street signs, Cooper's photographs are unquestionably "New York": her relaxed, candid subjects reveal more about their city in their smiles and sideways glances than any map could. Her most affecting work involves children: at play among the ruins of their neighborhoods, leaping from abandoned rooftop to rooftop and running through hydrant geysers. Cooper's eye for everyday rituals in her adopted city is as sharp as her eye for the outrageous: the men calmly walking their llama down the street have the same intensity as the elderly man reading alongside a baby carriage in a park. Readers will delight at the opportunity to pore over each image, creating their own stories as they go along. (Nov.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationEditorials
Publishers Weekly
Documentary photographer Cooper's exquisite and eclectic portraits of New York City in 1975 create a world at once removed from and inextricably tied to the soaring crime rates and crumbling neighborhoods of the 1970s. Without captions or titles, Cooper's crisp black and white photos document everything from a mother and child in Central Park to an unself-conscious naked man being interviewed on the street by a television reporter. Despite a conspicuous lack of street signs, Cooper's photographs are unquestionably "New York": her relaxed, candid subjects reveal more about their city in their smiles and sideways glances than any map could. Her most affecting work involves children: at play among the ruins of their neighborhoods, leaping from abandoned rooftop to rooftop and running through hydrant geysers. Cooper's eye for everyday rituals in her adopted city is as sharp as her eye for the outrageous: the men calmly walking their llama down the street have the same intensity as the elderly man reading alongside a baby carriage in a park. Readers will delight at the opportunity to pore over each image, creating their own stories as they go along. (Nov.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information