A Time Before Crack

＂Shabazz revisited his archive and unearthed an extraordinary collection of never-before-published documentary photographs collected for his third powerHouse Books release A Time Before Crack. A visual diary of the streets of New York City from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, Shabazz’s distinctive photographs reveal the families, the poses, and the players who made this age extraordinary. Originally published in 2005, this remarkable collection of documentary photographs, unearthed from Jamel Shabazz’s private archive, instantly became the next highly coveted installment in Shabazz’s oeuvre. Back in print for the first time, this edition of the groundbreaking publication includes a new cover, additional images, and updated text written by new contributors recounting their tales from the times＂--Publisher’s description.

Jamel Shabazz is best known for his iconic photographs of New York City during the 1980s. He has authored ten monographs and contributed to over three dozen other photography related books. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and his work is housed within the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Fashion Instutite of Technology, the Gordon Parks Foundation and the Getty Museum. Over the years, Shabazz has instructed young students at the Studio Museum in Harlem’s ＂Expanding the Walls＂ project, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s ＂Teen Curators＂ program, and the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. He is also the 2018 recipient of the Gordon Parks award for his commitment to documentary photography. Shabazz is a member of the photo collective Kamoinge. As an artist his goal is to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture.