For decades, photographer Jamel Shabazz has used his camera to connect with New York City’s diverse communities, producing iconic images of subjects as various as the emergence of hip-hop culture, Black incarceration, the innocence of children playing in the streets, and gay pride celebrations. Through 4 September, the Bronx Museum of the Arts celebrates Shabazz with Eyes on the Streets, a retrospective coving over 40 years of the photographer’s work.
Shabazz’s photographs are powerful for their intimacy. Unlike many street photographers, Shabazz tends to photograph his subjects looking directly into the camera’s lens, their eyes beckoning, their postures and facial expressions forming an instant connection with viewers. This intimacy comes from the lengthy encounters that often precede the photo itself, Shabazz approaching his subjects on the street and striking up a conversation before photographing them. “It takes time to make people feel comfortable and to get them to that point,” he said to the Guardian. “And then, the photographs become evidence of the conversation. The key is really the communication. When you approach somebody with good intentions, they feel it.”
