What I strive to do through my work, is to teach compassion. You need to have a lot of it, in this day and time, and it's lacking.
Jamel ShabazzI place myself in situations where a lot of people are going to be, and bring a particular body of work that reflects the people already there. You have to study your subject.
Jamel ShabazzI think that photography has allowed me to have a voice. I used to stutter, and once I overcame that struggle, it felt good to tell people they were beautiful and special.
Jamel ShabazzI'm shooting a gangbanger, but as a dignified man. That's pretty much what war photography did: seeing images of soldiers in a dignified way. They might have been killers in Vietnam, but I'm seeing another side of them, and looking at images of the the American soldiers, also the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong - I never saw an enemy.
Jamel Shabazz