Jamel Shabazz might be seen as a quintessential Brooklyn, or relatively New York, photographer. Over his 50-year profession, his work has spanned avenue pictures, documentary work, and style pictures. His photograph albums, gathering all of his work, are iconic in their very own proper they usually all bear his unmistakable type and eye.
The exhibition “Seconds of My Life: Pictures from 1975–2025,” on view on the Bronx Documentary Middle and curated by Michael Kamber and Cynthis Rivera, is a retrospective of Shabazz’s work and highlights his expertise for capturing highly effective tales of id, resilience, and group from the streets of New York and past.
Born within the Pink Hook part of Brooklyn in 1960, Shabazz grew up surrounded with a way of household in his group, the place neighbors seemed out for one another and the youngsters all performed collectively. His childhood additionally gave him his first introduction to artwork and pictures: His father was knowledgeable photographer, who realized the craft whereas in america Navy within the Nineteen Fifties.
Jamel Shabazz Pictures
“Upon getting out of the service, he labored as a contract photographer, changing our small condo right into a studio with backdrops {and professional} lights,” Shabazz stated through e mail. “Relations and neighbors would usually come by of their finest gear and he would cost a small payment to {photograph} them. Seeing how my father performed enterprise impressed me.”
It was his household’s photograph albums, although, that maintain a particular place in each his coronary heart and his thoughts.
“Household photograph albums had been meticulously organized and positioned on our espresso desk. All the topics had been kin, and my father took nice pleasure in caring for them, passionately updating the albums with new photographs as they had been made,” Shabazz recalled. “Most of the pictures, which had been a mixture of black-and-white and colour photographs, had been dated, and went again as early because the 1900s. As a toddler, I took nice enjoyment of taking a look at these albums and studying extra about my historical past and lineage.”
When he was 15, in junior highschool, Shabazz borrowed his mom’s previous Kodak Instamatic digicam, which wasn’t getting used, and commenced photographing his mates, who had been stepping into graffiti on the time. Whereas Shabazz did strive his hand at it, there was one thing about pictures that resonated with him greater than the graffiti artwork.
“Maybe it was the truth that it was already deep in my DNA,” he stated. “I began photographing mates and as soon as the roll was completed, I might take it to the native pharmacy, the place the roll could be developed. As soon as I noticed the outcomes, I used to be hooked. This newfound love gave me a way of goal, and created a path that allowed me to work together with much more individuals.”
Seeing the work of photographers Gordon Parks and James Van Der Zee additional influenced his personal pictures. Shabazz was intrigued by how Parks labored on every thing from style to documentary, to high-quality artwork, to portraiture. Seeing Parks’s work helped information him to changing into a greater and extra well-rounded photographer.
“What impressed me concerning the work of Van Der Zee was how he documented the pleasure and dignity of the Black group in Harlem throughout the Harlem Renaissance,” Shabazz added. “These photographs served as a counter-narrative for the adverse photographs I used to be seeing on an everyday. One of many issues I appreciated most about Van Der Zee was how he used varied props in his photographs, and the way he posed his topics, making everybody look regal and dignified. I took observe of how he operated and integrated a few of these parts into my inventive course of.”
Since these early days in his profession, now 5 many years in the past, so much has modified in New York Metropolis, a few of it good and a few of it not, and Shabazz has captured all of it in his work. In his view, nonetheless, one interval from his lengthy profession stands out.
“One of the crucial impactful occasions is the period I prefer to discuss with as ‘A Time Earlier than Crack.’ It’s inside that specific physique of labor that you simply see numerous pictures of abnormal individuals smiling and seemingly at peace,” Shabazz stated. “It was not that it was an ideal time interval, for we absolutely had issues, however as soon as AIDS, crack epidemics, and conflict on medication made landfall, life as we as soon as knew it was ceaselessly modified.”
With such an extended profession to sum up, deciding on pictures for his retrospective was a problem — the quantity of labor Shabazz has created over the many years is immense. He needed the work on view to impress thought, have backstories, and honor those that had handed away through the years.
“I chosen photographs that had been various and reflective of assorted cultures and communities, as all too usually, my work is pigeonholed in a single space. Themes have all the time been part of my inventive course of, however with the curation of this present, I needed a pleasant mixture of photographs representing the completely different elements of my type, so within the present, there are photographs of youngsters, mates, city style, on a regular basis individuals, and — after all — photographs from the numerous many years that I’ve been taking pictures.”
Shabazz needed to provide viewers the prospect to expertise his world and witness a few of the observations he has revamped time. His hope was that folks will see and find out about how pictures gave his life that means and goal.
In the long run, Shabazz returns to the household albums that he grew up trying by way of. The custom of constructing and passing down household photograph albums from technology to technology is slowly eroding, he stated, and a connection to household, historical past, and reminiscence are slowly eroding as nicely.
“In right now’s world, we’ve so many photographs on our particular person telephones and social media feeds; nonetheless, it’s nothing like having an essential a part of your loved ones historical past within the type of the photograph album,” he stated. “This matter might be bittersweet for many who could not have household, or have battle inside the household, however it’s by no means too late to start out creating an album. It’s equally essential to {photograph} and interview members of the family to keep up that historical past for future generations, and the survival of the household normally.”
Jamel Shabazz’s “Seconds of My Life: Pictures from 1975–2025” might be on view on the Bronx Documentary Middle from Feb. 28 by way of Apr. 20, 2025. Extra data is at bronxdoc.org.
