Art gallery Cultural Speech presents the first Dutch overview exhibition of street photographer Jamel Shabazz. The official opening takes place on Friday 1st March from 17h-19h and the artist is expected to be there. Rapper Sef and sneaker store Patta will also be present.

Jamel Shabazz is a legendary street photographer from New York, who was born in 1960 and came to be one of the most influential and important photographers of the late 20th century. He is most famous for his photos of Brooklyn’s dynamic street life, from the 1980s until now. At the age of fifteen, he got his first camera, a 110 Kodak Instamatic, and he began to photograph his friends and family. A couple of years later, he bought a Canon AE-1 and started his 35-year journey documenting various cultures and people. His pictures include prostitutes, criminals, pimps, young rappers, school girls, and how the rough Brooklyn life had influenced them.

Shabazz shows the vulnerable, yet powerful and beautiful side of people. He sees the invisible man on the street and those are his ‘stars’: those who don’t stand out, those who don’t consider themselves important enough, and those who wouldn’t be photographed by others. Shabazz represents this period of time in a unique way and is considered a street photography icon. His photobook ‘A Time Before Crack’ (2005) received immense praise from The New York Times.

The exhibition in Cultural Speech is his first ever in the Netherlands and can be visited from 1st March until 14th April at Postjesweg 6-8 in Amsterdam.