A Time Before Crack

Following up on his powerHouse titles Back in the Days (2001) and Last Sunday in June (2003), Shabazz delivers another set of photographs taken of nascent hip-culture circa 1979-1985. Nearly all of the 150 photos here are individual or group portraits; most are of young people in the streets; all reflect Shabazz's extraordinary rapport with his subjects-even when the latter are striking a defiant pose. The book offers a panorama of New York's African-American style of the era: Puma-hatted men with over-sized glasses, women in tight demin with white stitching, kente-clothed women, giant boom boxes, light brown glossy leather and painted denim jackets, big gold chains and earings, tiny shorts-and even a kind of Izod-Lacosted formality the pervaded the scene before the absolute dominance of athletic wear. As far as the title's implication of a more innocent time go: it's indeed impossible to anticipate the coming effects of crack on New York from look at these pictures, and ways in which Shabazz's subjects face the camera does feel less mediated than what he might get now walking down the street in Bed-Stuy, making this book a multi-layered time capsule. Also included are essays by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn and photographer Terrance Jennings, an introduction by TRACE magazine editor-in-chief Claude Grunitzky and an afterword by artist James ""Koe"" Rodriguez.