Photographs by Jamel Shabazz: 1980 - 1989 at Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne

Jamel Shabazz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the young age of fifteen, he picked up his first camera and started his photographic journey. Since the early 1980s, Shabazz has captured the energy of street life in New York, making iconic images of community, joy, and style. The upcoming solo show Photographs by Jamel Shabazz: 1980–1989 brings together mostly unseen works from this era. Shabazz was one of the first photographers to document the emerging youth culture, along with his own experiences, in neighborhoods across East Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant, downtown Brooklyn, up to Times Square. Capturing a time long gone from our collective culture and a wide range of social conditions, Shabazz made the streets of New York and the city's subway system the backdrop for many of his iconic photographs. 

Saturday Night Live, Times Square, NYC early 1980s © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Joy Riding, Flatbush, Brooklyn 1981 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Friends, Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC, 1981 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Shabazz has exhibited his homegrown approach to portraiture everywhere from the Rockefeller Plaza in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Addis Foto Fest in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His work is part of the permanent collections at the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian's 

National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. His books Back in the Days and A Time Before Crack are considered classics for their articulation of a visual vernacular and continue to inspire young generations of photographers.

On view from March 23rd to May 28th 2022 at Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne

Untitled, Brownsville, Brooklyn, NYC © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Young Love, Downtown Brooklyn NY, 1983 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Brother Man, Flatbush, NYC 1981 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

The Observer, NY 1985 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen

Help Me, Brownsville, Brooklyn, NYC 1980 © Jamel Shabazz + Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen