Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer

Although it meanders a bit, filmmaker Charlie Ahearn's Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer is a valuable documentary centered on the famed titular chronicler of Harlem life over 30 years, a shutterbug who caught the rise of hip-hop culture. Shabazz talks about his decision after serving in the military to follow in his father's footsteps as a photographer, wandering the streets of New York with camera in hand. Shabazz soon found that subways were a special environment for visual subjects, in part due to good light, but also because—as he puts it—there is no such thing as a dull subway ride. But Shabazz also found a gift for scoring the telling group shot, capturing several people together in a moment that conveyed the spirit of a transformative culture, whether related to fashion, attitude, custom, or community. Shabazz took pictures of hip-hop stars on the rise, but more importantly he focused on the details of ordinary life in which a strong undercurrent of pride and boldness—foundational attributes of hip-hop—could be detected. Much of the film finds former subjects of Shabazz's photos recalling circumstances behind the shoots, as well as footage of Shabazz training his camera on people participating in a Veterans Day parade. An interested portrait of an artist who memorialized a cultural movement, this is recommended. (T. Keogh)