Aperture and Rockefeller Center present an outdoor exhibition of New York City street and subway photographs by Jamel Shabazz, who has methodically created street portraits throughout the city for forty years. Fourteen of Shabazz’s portraits will be displayed in the heart of the city, installed on seven-foot-tall lightboxes across Rockefeller Center’s public plazas.
Jamel Shabazz was born and raised in Brooklyn. At the age of fifteen, he picked up his first camera and started to document his peers. Inspired by photographers Leonard Freed, James Van Der Zee, and Gordon Parks, he marveled at their documentation of the African American community. In 1980, as a concerned photographer with a clear vision, Shabazz embarked on a mission to extensively document various aspects of life in New York City, from youth culture to a wide range of social conditions. Due to their spontaneity and uniqueness, the city’s streets and subway system became backdrops for many of his photographs.
Jamel Shabazz has exhibited at the Studio Museum, Harlem; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Brooklyn Museum; and Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He has produced several books of his work. In 2018, Shabazz was awarded a Gordon Parks Foundation Award for his documentary photography.
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