Jamel Shabazz – Reflections from the 80’s – Cologne
On March 6th, the itinerant Hardhitta Gallery will open the first solo show by American photographer JAMEL SHABAZZ (*1960). The exhibition “Reflections from the 80’s” will showcase 18 photographs, taken over the course of a decade in the city of New York throughout the 1980s.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Shabazz picked up his first camera at the age
of 15 and started to document his peers. He was inspired by photographers such as Robert Capa, Leonard Freed, James Van Der Zee, and Gordon Parks, and moved by their documentation of the African American community.
In the 1980s as a concerned photographer with a clear vision, Shabazz embarked on a mission to extensively document life in New York City, from youth culture to a wide range of social conditions. Many of his photographs are shot against the unique and spontaneous backdrop of the city’s streets and subway system.
Shabazz has gained international recognition through his various books, exhibitions, and editorial magazine works. His photographs were featured in the 2007 documentary film Planet B-Boy and such exhibitions as the 2008 Street Art Street Life: From the 1950s to Now at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and as the album cover art for the 2011 hip hop album Undun by The Roots. Shabazz also appeared in the Cheryl Dunn 2010 documentary Everybody Street, a film „about photographers who have used New York City street life as a major subject in their work.“ Shabazz lives and works in New York.