R.I.P.: Memorial Wall Art

This classic collection of photographs documents the best of New York City's memorial murals, which were painted for the victims of tragic and untimely deaths. Commissioned by families and friends of the victims to commemorate the casualties of shootings, accidents, arguments, police killings, and drug-related turf wars, these vibrant murals have in most cases now been painted over or destroyed. R. I. P. contains superb color photographs of memorials from Harlem and the Lower East Side, the South Bronx and Brooklyn, together with the moving stories behind them. The photographs of these painted walls ensure that the dead are not forgotten, for a sometimes violent and indifferent city also spawned a rich urban art form. 137 color photographs.

Author Biography: Martha Cooper's first book, Subway Art (with Henry Chalfant), was an international success. She is Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. Joseph Sciorra, an urban folklorist, has written extensively on New York's street fairs, popular religion, and vernacular architecture.

"Every culture has a way to remember their dead, and this fine book documents this so very well. When these young people are gunned down, who really cares, who knows, who sees? Now, all over urban America, walls, murals speak, yell, scream to us. Let's not forget them and, better yet, let's stop the senseless deaths."—Spike Lee

This classic collection of photographs documents the best of New York City's memorial murals, which were painted for the victims of tragic and untimely deaths. Commissioned by families and friends of the victims to commemorate the casualties of shootings, accidents, arguments, police killings, and drug-related turf wars, these vibrant murals have in most cases now been painted over or destroyed. R. I. P. contains superb color photographs of memorials from Harlem and the Lower East Side, the South Bronx and Brooklyn, together with the moving stories behind them. The photographs of these painted walls ensure that the dead are not forgotten, for a sometimes violent and indifferent city also spawned a rich urban art form. 137 color photographs.

Author Biography: Martha Cooper's first book, Subway Art (with Henry Chalfant), was an international success. She is Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. Joseph Sciorra, an urban folklorist, has written extensively on New York's street fairs, popular religion, and vernacular architecture.

Martha Cooper is a documentary photographer who has specialized in urban vernacular art and architecture for more than twenty-five years. Cooper worked as a staff photographer for the New York Post from 1977 to 1980, when she left to follow the emerging hip hop scene. In 1984, collaborating with Henry Chalfant, she published Subway Art (Thames & Hudson), the classic book showcasing the best painted trains of the era, which has been dubbed "The Bible" by graffiti writers.