The Alley Cat is on DeKalb & Flatbush
January 27, 2012
Photograph by Alix Dejean
Word from Curtis Stephen is the first Alix Dejean show since the 1980s opens on Wednesday, February 1 at LIU’s Selena Gallery (BK) and features shots ofAretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali, Stokely Carmichael, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Phyllis Hyman, and Michael Jackson on stage with Gil Scott-Heron … amongst countless other treasures. The show is free and open to the public, running through February 29.
Here’s the word from the Niko Koppel for the New York Times back in 2008…
Toting a leather bag, in which he carries his 35-millimeter Nikon, Mr. Dejean wanders from block to block, ready to snap portraits during the day and pictures at parties and other celebrations at night. “I’m the people’s photographer,” he said.
Mr. Dejean often photographs people in parks, on brownstone stoops, hanging out at street corners and philosophizing in barbershops. A self-styled entrepreneur, he prints his pictures on glossy paper and offers to sell the images to his subjects for about $20 each. That price is negotiable, however.
The images taken by Mr. Dejean, who said he was influenced by the photographer Gordon Parks, are reminiscent of those of James Van Der Zee, who documented Harlem during its renaissance, and Jamel Shabazz, who recorded the early years of hip-hop culture. Although his works have never been publicly exhibited, they are prized by Harlem residents, tucked in family albums and in frames on apartment walls…
