The article reviews the Bronx Documentary Center's exhibition "Martha Cooper: Streetwise," which surveys Cooper's career from the late 1970s through the 2010s, focusing on her iconic photographs of New York City's graffiti and breaking culture in the early 1980s. The exhibition includes images from New York, Baltimore, Tokyo, and Soweto, highlighting Cooper's documentation of urban youth, street play, and the physical relationship between inhabitants and the city, such as spray-painting subway cars and dancing on flattened boxes.
The review matters because it positions Cooper's work within a broader legacy of photographers like Helen Levitt and Arthur Leipzig who captured urban youth, arguing that Cooper and her contemporary Jamel Shabazz deserve more credit for continuing this tradition. The exhibition is presented as a crucial visual and psychological analysis of how people physically express themselves in New York, offering a love letter to the city's landscape rather than mere nostalgia.