Too Fly, Downtown Brooklyn, 1982

“Back in the days, Downtown, Brooklyn was one of the main shopping districts, always vibrant and full of energy. It was an ideal place for me to make new connections and document young people and street style. The streets of New York City, with their unique aesthetics, served as the primary backdrop for the majority of the photographs I have made over the decades. Living in such a large city (one that never sleeps) also provided me with time, endless subject matter, and the opportunity to document the many elements which made it such a great and magical place. Today, the vibration that I once knew is gone forever, but I am grateful to have been able to use my camera to preserve a bit of that history that will always hold a special place in my heart." —Jamel Shabazz All of the artist’s proceeds from the sale of these limited special edition prints are being donated to various New York City charities facing the greatest need. On March 30, 2021, Aperture and Rockefeller Center hosted a discussion between esteemed photographer Jamel Shabazz and writer Tanisha C. Ford. If you missed this fantastic talk, watch it here.

Pigment Print
Image Size: 6 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches
Paper Size: 8 x 10 inches
Edition of 100
Signed and numbered by the artist

Jamel Shabazz (b. 1960, Brooklyn, New York) is a documentary, fashion, and street photographer, best known for his iconic photographs of New York City in the 1980s. In 2010, Shabazz received a Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation award for his community service and mentorship; in 2018, he received a Gordon Parks Foundation award. In 2020, Shabazz participated in a two-person exhibition, A Choice of Weapons, Honor and Dignity, alongside Gordon Parks at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul. Shabazz’s work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, J. Paul Getty Museum, Gordon Parks Foundation, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Bronx Museum of the Arts. His work was featured in Aperture #223: “Vision and Justice”, Aperture #230: “Prison Nation”; numerous exhibitions at Aperture Gallery, including Prison Nation and The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion (2019–20, curated by Antwaun Sargent); and most recently in Aperture #242: “New York.” Fourteen of Shabazz’s portraits were displayed in the heart of New York City, installed on seven-foot-tall lightboxes across Rockefeller Center’s public plazas, in April 2021.