Literature
Real Portraits of the Hood
By Sidik Fofana—SeeingBlack.com Contributing Critic
May 6, 2008, 11:14

In his fourth book, photographer Jamel Shabazz offers an assemblage of metropolitan snapshots from his pre-crack era photo archives. Seconds of My Life is a kaleidoscope of the urban underclass; it chronicles Shabazz’s travels deep into New York City’s boroughs, Brazil’s favelas and Jamaica’s shantytowns—to the habitat of the have-nots. Yet these photos are not of destitution and despair but, rather, of leisure and good cheer: smiles at a Muslim bakery in Harlem, a young man getting a fresh high top fade at barbershop, sorority sisters living it up at Jones Beach in Long Island, N.Y.Seconds of My Life is not a plea for pity, it is a testimony to the creativity and joy of life of poor and working-class people.


The book offers a sort of alternative philanthropy from Shabazz. With each photo, he is giving back to the community the same gift of diversity that he observes and enjoys within his camera lens. Just when you think that he has uncovered all the subdivisions of the urban heartbeat, he reveals more: a father and daughter with pet iguanas on their shoulders pose for a picture, a n athletic, curly haired midget lays his whole body on a skateboard and two talented African-American youth play the violin in the subway.


From the early 1980's, Shabazz's snapshots have taken on many forms and topics: hip hop, basketball, religion, Greeks, Caribbean people, and so forth. Each photo is an important piece of the urban mosaic, full of smiles, nods and mean mugs that paint working class and poor neighborhoods. Shabazz shows us that though these subjects belong to same proletariat, their experiences span a multifaceted emotional trajectory, making their existence all the more colorful.


His eye for the beauty in slums, ghettos, favelas, shantytowns and gutters shakes up common perceptions of the world's lowest economic classes. His technique and focus enable him to not only photograph people but to also tell stories—stories that remind us that the poorer we are, the richer our tale of survival.



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