Jamel Shabazz, an internationally recognized photographer, was born in New York and began to dabble in photography at the mere age of 15 when he got his first camera. Also having grown up with a father who was a professional photographer and avid reader of books, which focused on social issues, he had quite a journey set out for him.

Fast forwarding to the future, Shabazz is a brilliant African-American photographer known for his works in fashion, music, art and documentaries. Having played a key role in documenting black life around him and following the footsteps of Gordon parks, Leonard Freed and James Van Der Zee, Shabazz began his rise to fame when he captured the youth culture of New York through his lens, immortalizing the hip hop and R&B era that was emerging.

With laser like focus and sensitivity for culture, history and social life, Shabazz took his lens into the streets of the city around him and turned ordinary people into memorials. After his time in the military, Shabazz came back to a world where AIDS, crack and the war on violence and drugs was raging red. Using his camera as a means to combat the distorted narrative of ethnic life around him, he set out on a journey to represent the brilliance of dark skin and the life that was led in it.

Using exhibitions, publications and social media, he aimed to show the honor and dignity that prevailed in communities of color. Having been a youth in the time of civil unrest and confusion, he began to turn to his art to get a sense of clarity about the world around him.

Currently, Shabazz has highlighted issues he aims to focus his lens on. Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, Shabazz aims to continue studying people of color, but in the light of social issues like crime, police brutality, affordable housing, poverty, access to education, and even mental health and self love – topics that have long tugged at the heartstrings of so many.

In Fall 2019, Shabazz will showcase a powerful exhibition alongside other photographers who will focus on issues like Albinism, the aftermath of natural disasters in Haiti, police brutality and also the social issues of being dark skinned in the new America.

Brilliant, talented, humble and ever-growing, Jamel Shabazz is a force to be reckoned with. With a journey so solid and a powerful purpose behind his art, it’s rare to find photographers that capture the truth. Encouraging younger artists to use the language of photography to inspire hope and solutions in uncertain times and in an era of climatic change, Shabazz’s love for his art is unparalleled as is our awe of him.