In the infancy of hip-hop, Brooklyn-born photographer Jamel Shabazz documented the pioneers of music and style who would launch an enduring worldwide phenomenon. In Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer Charlie Ahearn (director of the seminal graffiti movie Wild Style) pays tribute to both Shabazz and those who defined hip-hop before it had definition. We sat down with Shabazz ahead of the DVD release to talk about his motives for documenting the world around him and how they have evolved throughout his lifetime.
In the infancy of hip-hop, Brooklyn-born photographer Jamel Shabazz documented the pioneers of music and style who would launch an enduring worldwide phenomenon. In Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer Charlie Ahearn (director of Wild Style) pays tribute to both Shabazz and those who defined hip-hop before it had definition. More than just vintage shots of kids rocking sneakers and savvy street style in Times Square and Fort Greene Park, Shabazz’s photographs have hundreds of stories behind them, and Ahearn’s film gives voice to these images with intimate interviews with Shabazz himself, graffiti pioneer and hip-hop historian Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, legendary rapper KRS-One, and others.
We sat down with Shabazz ahead of the DVD release to discuss his motives for documenting the world around him and how they have evolved throughout his lifetime.
Alex Nicholson: Some of my favorite scenes are when a group of your old friends or neighbors are looking through the photographs and reminiscing. No matter who it is, whether it is the actual people in the photos, KRS-1 and other luminaries of time time, or a later generation who was influenced by the music, graffiti, or fashion, everyone is in awe of the unique point in time that you captured. How aware were you that it was important to preserve those things on film? When you take a picture of a window full of sneakers, are you thinking about how the photo will look in the present, are you considering what those sneakers will mean 15 years from now?
Jamel Shabazz: Great question! My awareness was very clear when I embarked on a mission to preserve the history and culture of my generation. The initial idea was conceived while I was manning a perimeter on a very frigid winter night in West Germany, during a three year deployment. To keep my sanity, I would try to vividly remember everything I could about my beloved Brooklyn, from the people I knew, the stores I patronized, graffiti, the fashion and the trains. It was at the moment that I promised myself that when I returned home, I would use my camera to document the world around me so that I would never be without memories. Regarding the photograph of the sneakers in the window, I was seeing an evolution in sneaker culture, and my intuition kicked in inspiring me to freeze that particular moment in time.
You mention how influential Leonard Freed's "Black in White America" as a document of a place and time. And, after working as a correctional officer you say you went back out on the streets, camera in hand, with a purpose. You've also focused on many different subjects from the cool guys to the nation, to veterans, etc. What was your initial reason for capturing these communities on camera, and how has that change over time?
"Black in White America" was one of the very first photography books I ever viewed. Not only did it introduce me to the power of documentary photography and racial injustice, but it allowed me to see the role that photography and the photographer can play to address issues, and preserve history. It was in that one book that I saw a stunning photograph within a prison for the very first time, along with a caption that described the horrible and violent conditions within. Becoming a Correction Officer around the same time that crack cocaine was introduced to New York City, helped to fuel my passion and commitment to use my voice and vision to sound the alarm that serious danger was on the horizon. Working inside one of the largest and most violent Correction facilities on Rikers Island, I was right in the heart of what many call the “Belly of the Beast." On a daily basis, I was surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of adolescents; many with mental health and drug related problems. A large number of others were products of the foster care system, and the innocent and guilty were all housed in one negative environment. As a conscious officer, I strove to do the best I could to offer guidance and direction to the young men that I worked with. Photography often became the magnet that drew many to me and I would use it as a tool to talk about a number of issues, the main being the need to stop the violence and reevaluate our lives and goals.
I carried my camera everywhere I went, both to the job and on the streets. Almost everyone I took a photograph of, I made it a point to impart some degree of knowledge to. I had no shame in telling people about my day job and in many instances that gave me greater leverage. Since I grew up during the 1960's, I witnessed a time when the Vietnam War was in full motion, so I started photographing Veterans of various wars from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and all of the conflicts that transpired during the past 30 years. My lens was also trained towards the political and antiwar protests that took place after 9-11, in conjunction with the antiwar movement in America. Like those documentarians before me, I felt a great degree of duty to lend my voice and vision in preserving historic moments in my life time. I vividly recall seeing photographs in popular magazines such as LIFE and National Geographic of young men in the jungles and firebases in South Vietnam during the war, along with antiwar protesters. I would never have imagined that decades later, I would be afforded the opportunity to photograph some of those same men who served in that terrible war. In addition, I was able to capture a combination of old and new antiwar protestors who share the same feelings of those a generation earlier. So much of the work I have done is a continuation of what has been documented before me; I am just striving to do my part to make sure that a very important history is recorded for future generations to see.
Sadly, in today's world not too much has changed. America is still at war, young people are still filling the Prison Industrial Complex, race is still a major issue in this society, and now there is a new “Legal” drug called K-2, a synthetic chemical form of marijuana that is creating havoc all over New York City, and the tri State area. Like Crack that preceded it, the effects of this new man made drug will have great impact on an already wounded society.
These days, everyone has a camera in their pocket and sharing images and video with each other is something many people feel compelled to do every second of the day. There is no other point history that is as well documented as today. When you go out and take pictures now, what is the biggest difference you see? Obviously you've seen a lot of changes over the years, but do people hold themselves different and react different to being photographed today then when you first started shooting?
One of the main things I find interesting is the fact that almost everyone has some form of electronic device to capture images. In most cases, it is not a traditional camera, but often a cell phone or iPad with photographic capabilities. Just a few years ago this was unimaginable. For subjects that I chose to document, their reaction is not much different from those I would receive 30 years ago. The only difference there may be is that the subject usually requests to see the image, and in most cases would request that I take a similar photograph with their recording device so that they can upload it to their Instagram or Facebook pages.
Pre-order the DVD ahead of it's October 27th release or stream the film now on demand here.
