Going Postal Mailing Label Street Art

Because they are freely accessible in large quantities, postal stickers have long been a preferred substrate used by street artists to get up, without having to risk too much time executing their work in public places. With ample time to draw and tag on these stickers in the privacy of their own homes, these sticker artists achieve great feats of diverse artistry, not to mention exposure. Able to covertly apply a sticker to a lamppost in broad daylight in bustling city centers, or scale a billboard with a pocketful of already tagged stickers, the artists that use stickers minimize risk and maximize effect. Of course, because stickers from the US Postal Service, UPS, DHL and FEDEX are so readily available, so many of these stickers get lost in the fray. Thats where graffiti photography legend Martha Cooper comes in. Shooting the origins of hiphop and graffiti cultures since the late 1970s in New York City, and later all over the world, Coopers well-trained eyes know how to recognize deft sticker art. Here then is a collection of more than 200 photographs of some of Coopers favorite handmade postal stickers from her travels. Always armed with a camera when walking around a city, Cooper offers this personal collection of stickers that caught her attention, whether done by some of the scenes better-known artists or the anonymous, but no less astounding. Going Postal documents how an old-school method has burgeoned into another rich facet of the worlds graffiti cultures.