Polaroid SX-70 Black Book

« Skipper » Ward Merrill Hooper Jr.
Polaroid SX-70 Black Book

Photographs: « Skipper » Ward Merrill Hooper Jr.

Text: Chris “DAZE” Ellis

Publisher: URBAN SPREE GmbH

160 pages

Year: 2026

Price: 45 €

Comments: Hardcover with a tipped-in printed photograph, 22,3 x 20 cm, text in English. Colors polaroids.

Urban Spree Books publishes « Polaroid SX-70 Black Book », an intimate collection of vintage Polaroids from the early 80s focused on New York City graffiti writers. These portraits tell the story of a pioneering graffiti generation, who went to influence generations to come through graffiti and hip hop. The book catches them at an early time, in what in retrospect seems like an age of innocence: young, free, hopeful. At the verge of commercial success, in this unique NYC effervescence of clubbing, art, graffiti, dereliction, crime and excitement. The story starts on 675 Hudson Street, nicknamed the « Little Flat Iron Building ». Nestled between notorious gay and BDSM clubs was « Skipper » Ward Merrill Hooper Jr.’s loft on the 3rd floor and Gallery Above Ground on the 2nd. where Crash, DAZE, Pink, Cey and others were working on their nascent art careers. Skipper befriended them and they all started hanging out together, going to downtown parties & gallery openings in the burgeoning scene of 81-82. Skipper would usually never go out without his Polaroid camera SX-70. He would photograph them on these occasions, never imposing himself and respectful. Often, the writers would write on or tag the back of the Polaroids, like in a black book. Owing to its unique physicality, the Polaroid medium became a gift, an exchange, a contribution. The book reproduces both fronts and backs of each photograph, capturing the entirety of the interaction. 37 years after, the treasure chest has been rediscovered by DAZE and exhibited at Urban Spree in 2019 in the show « New York Perspectives », curated by Mode 2 with works from DAZE, Joe Conzo, and Polaroids by Skipper, who since 1983 lives in Berlin. Exceptionally well preserved, the Polaroids are now given a second chance to transmit their aura. Urban Spree Books publishes this time capsule who will appeal to both fans of the old school graffiti NYC era and amateurs of the golden age of Polaroid pictures.