Jamel Shabazz Quotes

For me, the stars are the invisible people on the street that people don't really get a chance to know.

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.

The images of war inspired me to create, to go to different situations and communities, to document the human side of people, to show a side that we don't see.

When you look at my photos, just look into the eyes of my subjects. The eyes say so much.

The photograph is to a great degree evidence of the conversation I had with the person. It's a part of my visual diary.

Photography is humbling, it really is, and it really allows for me to atone for some of the missteps I've made throughout the course of my life.

I 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.

Sometimes we are just divided, but we still, for the most part, we have similar hopes and dreams.

I think that's what the war photography did for me. It showed me the human side of people and how certain circumstances can change people's lives.

For the most part, as a society, we are not happy with ourselves.

My camera is my compass; it's guided me to so many different places.

I 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.

When a photographer or a person sees your beauty, your inner beauty, it makes you feel special like, "Wow, someone saw that within me."

When I approach a person, I feel a certain way. If I don't feel that way, I'm not going to approach that individual. "I see something in you" - I want the person to know that.

I do believe in angels and I believe that a lot of these people I'm supposed to meet. The photograph serves as evidence; it causes me to reflect on when I met this person.

I wanted to go amongst gangbangers, to understand this war they were fighting amongst each other. I wanted to document it, [also] to show the human side of it.