Spray nation

If you were a graffiti writer in 1980s New York City, you wanted Martha Cooper to document your work--and she probably did. Cooper has spent decades immortalizing art that is often overlooked, and usually illegal. The hardcover features hundreds of thousands of 35mm Kodachrome slides of street art and graffiti, painstakingly selected and digitized. All from a gritty New York era that is gone forever. And although the original pieces (as well as many of their creators) have been lost, these powerful photos feel as immediate as a subway train thundering down the tracks.