Going Postal- Martha Cooper

Postal stickers have long been a preferred substrate used by street artists to get up. Of course, because stickers from the US Postal Service, UPS, DHL and FEDEX are so readily available, many of these stickers get lost in the fray. That’s where graffiti photography legend Martha Cooper comes in. Shooting the origins of hip-hop and graffiti cultures since the late 1970s in New York City, and later all over the world, Cooper’s well-trained eyes know how to recognize deft sticker art. Going Postal is a collection of more than 200 photographs of some of Cooper’s favorite handmade postal stickers from around the world, done by both better-known and anonymous artists. Going Postal documents how an old-school method has burgeoned into a rich facet of the world’s graffiti cultures.The strength of this book is in its showcase of work by unknown artists. Since stickers are one of the preferred media of traveling writers, the book credits the city in which the sticker was spotted versus crediting the writers themselves.