Already as a teenager, the U.S. photographer Jamel Shabazz defined the main theme of his lifelong work: people who populate the streets of New York City, mixing traditions and cultures. The Bronx Museum in New York is dedicating a solo show to him from April 6 to September 4. Jamel Shabazz: Eyes on the Street presents an impressive archive of New York City's outer borough communities and a tribute to Shabazz's illustrious career of over forty years. His photographs capture daily life in the big city, where everyone is simultaneously part of the audience as well as the exhibition. Central to his work is his unwavering empathy for the people he meets on the street. Neither origin nor social status play a role. His images take an unbiased look at everyone he has met during his twenty years on Rikers Island: from prisoners to correctional officers, dapper B-boys or young Muslim men and women in their finest clothes.
Jamel Shabazz is an African American fashion, fine art, documentary and street style photographer born and raised in Brooklyn. Inspired by photographers such as Leonard Freed, James Van Der Zee and Gordon Parks, he set out in 1980 to comprehensively document various aspects of life in New York City. Because of its spontaneity and uniqueness, the city's streets and subways became the backdrop for many of his photographs. According to his own statement, the artist wants his work to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture. Over the past decade, there have been more than two dozen solo exhibitions and group shows of Shabazz's work. They have been shown internationally, including in Argentina, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and throughout the United States. Shabazz is the author of five monographs and has contributed to numerous others.
