Martha Cooper – Street Play
Children playing in ruins or in clunkers, in a part of New York City that looks like an european distric after the World War II… This is the work of Martha Cooper in her serie called “Street Play”.
Since the 1970s, Martha Cooper has documented children playing in the Lower Eastside which, at the time, was a wasteland full of vacant lots. Many of her photographs were taken in the Alphabet City area, (between the Avenues A, B, C and D) where children found perfect playgrounds with plenty of open spaces and raw materials, like others have fun in the wood…
While depicting the creativity and innocence of children making the best of their environment, “Street Play” also gives an account of a promiscuous city which has been quickly forgotten after the distric became trendy and beloved by artists. Here some of the pictures I found on the web:
- M. Cooper – Street Play serie
- M. Cooper – Street Play serie
- M. Cooper – Street Play serie
- M. Cooper – Street Play serie
- M. Cooper – Street Play serie
Martha Cooper’s photographs have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian and Natural History Magazines. Born in the 1940s in Baltimore, she lives and works in NYC.