Jamel Shabazz: New York in Pictures

Many years before I was even born Jamel Shabazz Solidified his name as a synonym for New York City. He made it his mission to document all aspects of life in the city; to preserve small time capsules representing the different eras of the city. From “A Time Before Crack” to “Seconds of my life” which the roots happened to pick as the cover for “undun”, his books perfectly embody the different eras of the city. His photography revolves around talking to his subjects and complementing whatever caught his attention, but instead of snapping a photo without his subject’s knowledge, he stops and has a conversation his shares moments with his subjects with comes out when you see the images, it’s a apparent that a connection was shared which elevates all of the photos. This was done purposefully as it was, for him, the entire point of picking up a camera, he wanted an “in” to these people’s lives and the camera was the master key.

At age 9, he was introduced to photography by his father, he kept a copy of Leonard Freed's Black in White America which blew Shabazz’s mind and made him want to document the community he lived among. And somewhere down the line he became a correctional officer at Rikers Island which allowed him to snap some photos of the inside. Photography was an in to have a conversation with anyone remotely interesting he encounters, an excuse to walk around New York all day just hunting for moments. With a career spanning four decades, he amassed quite the archive and I wanted to collect a few of my favorites.