Born in Brooklyn in the 1960s, Jamel Shabazz wanted to be the witnesof his generation, its culture, its lifestyle. He begins the photography at the age of 15, by documenting the streetlife of the African American community of New York. His fantastic images capture the energy, love and unity in the New York of the 80s as no any others ; these became the icons of Big Apple over the last 40 years. His work immortalized a whole generation exposed to the civil rights movement and to the Vietnam War, a generation which gave birth to the graffiti and the hip-hop.