Photographer Martha Cooper documented the street art of New York’s burgeoning hip hop scene of the 1970s and ’80s. When she became the first female staff photographer at the New York Post in 1977, she set out to capture the beauty and ingenuity of graffiti art and the innovators behind it, immortalizing their work in photographs of painted subway cars and urban walls. Cooper’s images validated and legitimized graffiti writers at a time when few members of the art establishment celebrated their work. Her hit 1984 photobook Subway Art, made in collaboration with photographer Henry Chalfant, came to be known as the graffiti bible, providing a template for aspiring street artists. She has also produced bodies of work documenting breakdancing cultures and spontaneous street memorials to the victims of 9/11.