Why?

“Everything that Jamel Shabazz does and documents, especially me being a born and raised New Yorker, has really helped me appreciate the contemporary element of life here.

I love how free this book feels. It's just documenting without the pressure of anybody else besides believing in yourself and doing it. And the scenes are incredible, by the way. Just to see the Lower East Side and all that stuff from back in the day is really dope.

I don't know if he understood the weight of what he was capturing at the time. Sometimes you might take photo and it’ll feel like just a normal picture, nothing special, but when you see it later in the context of everything, it’s important.

So now, if I see somebody doing something that's contemporary from now, I try to gravitate towards those kinds of moments and Jamel Shabazz is a really good reminder of how important that can be.”
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- Steve “Sweatpants” Irby, Photographer