Edited with text by Michal Raz-Russo, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. Text by Deborah Willis, Nelson George, Leslie Wilson.
Photo albums from the archives of the iconic chronicler of New York's 1980s rap, hip-hop and Black culture
The influential Brooklyn-based photographer Jamel Shabazz has been making portraits of New Yorkers for more than 40 years, creating an archive of cultural shifts and struggles across the city. His portraits of different communities underscore the street as a space for self-presentation, whether through fashion or pose. In every instance Shabazz aims, in his words, to represent individuals and communities with “honor and dignity.” This book—awarded the Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize—presents, for the first time, Shabazz’s work from the 1970s to ’90s as it exists in his archive: small prints thematically grouped and sequenced in traditional family photo albums that function as portable portfolios. Shabazz began making portraits in the mid-1970s in Brooklyn, Queens, the West Village and Harlem. His camera was also at his side while working as an officer at Rikers Island in the 1980s, where he took portraits of inmates. This book features selections from over a dozen albums, many previously unseen, and includes his earliest photographs as well as images taken inside Rikers Island, all accompanied by essays that situate Shabazz’s work within the broader history of photography. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Jamel Shabazz (born 1960) picked up his first camera at the age of 15 and began documenting his communities, inspired by photographers such as Leonard Freed, James Van Der Zee and Gordon Parks. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including those at the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Shabazz is the author of Back in the Days (2001) and Sights in the City (2017).
Featured image is reproduced from 'Jamel Shabazz: Albums.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
The Atlantic
Peter L’Official
Jamel Shabazz: Albums—presented in a format that allows viewers to experience how his subjects might have first encountered his work—are testament both to these personal rituals and histories and to the improvisational collectives of Black and brown faces that Shabazz so carefully created and preserved, persisting in spite of their precarity.
Animal
Sara Rosen
Over the years, Shabazz’s photo albums became restorative balms, creating a space where he could spend time with photographs that reflect love, humanity and innocence, giving him hope that helped sustain his journey, as well as honor the lives and legacies of those no longer with us.
Aperture
Michael Famighetti
The cumulative effect is something between a yearbook, a lookbook, and a family album—it is a reminder that no one transmits the vitality of Black life and community in New York quite like Jamel Shabazz.
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Featured spreads are from new release Jamel Shabazz: Albums, winner of the 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize and a book that gives us book people pure book joy. Presenting the photographer’s iconic work from the 1970s to the 1990s as it exists in his original archive of photo albums, this is a volume that simply exudes feeling. In her catalogue essay, titled Looking B(l)ack, noted photography scholar Deborah Willis writes, “Shabazz’s photo albums frame a time in history, enabling us to look back at Black cultural moments, the mundane as well as the more extraordinary. Each page situates his subjects in their element, and each photograph honors their personal self-invention. While larger themes of cultural identity, family, gender, leisure, play and work are all resonant in this book, these albums celebrate personal identity within a larger community. Ultimately, they are Shabazz’s love letter to his home city.” continue to blog
Featured spreads are from new release Jamel Shabazz: Albums, winner of the 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize and a book that gives us book people pure book joy. Presenting the photographer’s iconic work from the 1970s to the 1990s as it exists in his original archive of photo albums, this is a volume that simply exudes feeling. In her catalogue essay, titled Looking B(l)ack, noted photography scholar Deborah Willis writes, “Shabazz’s photo albums frame a time in history, enabling us to look back at Black cultural moments, the mundane as well as the more extraordinary. Each page situates his subjects in their element, and each photograph honors their personal self-invention. While larger themes of cultural identity, family, gender, leisure, play and work are all resonant in this book, these albums celebrate personal identity within a larger community. Ultimately, they are Shabazz’s love letter to his home city.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 240 pgs / 100 color / 50 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $70 ISBN: 9783969990957 PUBLISHER: Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation AVAILABLE: 3/14/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation. Edited with text by Michal Raz-Russo, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. Text by Deborah Willis, Nelson George, Leslie Wilson.
Photo albums from the archives of the iconic chronicler of New York's 1980s rap, hip-hop and Black culture
The influential Brooklyn-based photographer Jamel Shabazz has been making portraits of New Yorkers for more than 40 years, creating an archive of cultural shifts and struggles across the city. His portraits of different communities underscore the street as a space for self-presentation, whether through fashion or pose. In every instance Shabazz aims, in his words, to represent individuals and communities with “honor and dignity.” This book—awarded the Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize—presents, for the first time, Shabazz’s work from the 1970s to ’90s as it exists in his archive: small prints thematically grouped and sequenced in traditional family photo albums that function as portable portfolios.
Shabazz began making portraits in the mid-1970s in Brooklyn, Queens, the West Village and Harlem. His camera was also at his side while working as an officer at Rikers Island in the 1980s, where he took portraits of inmates. This book features selections from over a dozen albums, many previously unseen, and includes his earliest photographs as well as images taken inside Rikers Island, all accompanied by essays that situate Shabazz’s work within the broader history of photography.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Jamel Shabazz (born 1960) picked up his first camera at the age of 15 and began documenting his communities, inspired by photographers such as Leonard Freed, James Van Der Zee and Gordon Parks. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including those at the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Shabazz is the author of Back in the Days (2001) and Sights in the City (2017).
