ESCHBORN.- Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation presents the exhibitions “Jamel Shabazz. New York Vibes” and “Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation Prize 2026”.

“Jamel Shabazz. New York Vibes”

Since the early 1980s, American photographer Jamel Shabazz (b. 1960) has been using his camera to document scenes of everyday life in the predominantly African-American neighbourhood in his hometown New York. On his walks through Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn he has taken countless portraits that are now icons of their era. Shabazz made the streets his studio, capturing the exuberant creativity of the young generation in vibrant images. The fact that he was perceived not as a distant observer but as someone from the same social reality as his subjects is apparent in the intimate atmosphere of his individual and group portraits: Full of self-confidence, Black women, men, and children gaze into the camera and boldly present their stylish outfits and cool moves.

As a child, Shabazz discovered the world of photography through family albums, magazines, and books that revealed to him the importance and diversity of the medium. In his teenage years, he created early portraits of his friends with his first camera. In 1980, after serving in the US Army for three years in West Germany, he began to systematically capture his daily encounters on the street, in parks, and on the subway. His photographs document the birth of hip-hop culture as well as the importance of friendship, family, and neighbourhood. They were created at a time when life in New York was also affected by the consequences of economic decline, racial inequality, the crack epidemic and mass incarceration.

Shabazz experienced the impact this had on the Black population firsthand. For more than twenty years, he worked as a correction officer in institutions such as Rikers Island, one of the largest jails in the United States that houses mainly pretrial detainees awaiting court appearances, most of whom are poor, and more than half of whom suffer from mental illness.





While his photographs in public space convey a sense of freedom, belonging, and youthful energy, his pictures taken in prisons shed light on the futility, marginalisation, and often devastating consequences of social inequality. In these works, too, Shabazz exhibits the same receptiveness and, without depriving them of their dignity, shows people whose biographies are marked by disruptions.

Featuring over 60 photographs, this exhibition is the first in Germany to offer a comprehensive insight into Shabazz’s multifaceted perspectives on African-American life in New York in the 1980s and 1990s. The show brings together photographs of exuberant moments of urban youth culture as well as introspective images of a repressive institutional structure, raising fundamental questions about identity, community, and justice.

The exhibition was organised in collaboration with Galerie Bene Taschen and was curated by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation.

“Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation Prize 2026”

At the same time, the Photography Foundation presents the exhibition of the Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation Prize 2026.

Awarded annually by the Deutsche B鰎se Photography Foundation in collaboration with the Photographers’ Gallery in London, it is one of the most prestigious international awards for contemporary photography.

This year’s shortlisted artists are Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, Amak Mahmoodian, and the winner Rene Matić.

Jane Evelyn Atwood documented the lives of women in prisons in Europe and the United States with compassion over a period of more than ten years, while also advocating for the improvement of their conditions.

Rene Matić’s installation combines everyday observations with intimate insights into their own circle of friends. From a queer, non-white perspective, Matić poses questions about community, belonging, subculture, and class.

The Iranian artist Amak Mahmoodian, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom, explores the dreams of others who share this experience, using photography, drawing, and poetry to create layered narratives about loss, hope, and identity.

Weronika Gęsicka, in turn, works with stock photographs and AI-generated images to visualise historical misinformation and question the reliability of knowledge and information systems.

Together, the four projects open up different perspectives on social issues such as migration, gender inequality, identity, and the search for truth.

The exhibition shows the great diversity of the forms of photographic expression employed by the featured artists, ranging from classic black-and-white images, collaborative projects, and installation collages to AI-based works.

It was curated by Julia Bunnemann from the Photographers’ Gallery.