Devin Allen first rose to fame in 2015, when his photograph of the Baltimore uprising that followed the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police was published on the cover of Time magazine. Since then Allen has continued to photograph the fight for social justice in his hometown of Baltimore, creating work that is not only a tribute to Black resistance but also a celebration of his community. Demonstrating his deep commitment and unwavering pride, his decade-long body of work serves as more than documentation-it confronts myths and brings into view what has been made invisible. Central to much of Allen's work is a reconsideration of Black representation. His photographs, many of them created collaboratively with his subjects, serve as a call for self-realization that allows for complexity, tension and contradiction.
This book, awarded the 2023 Gordon Parks Foundation / Steidl Book Prize, includes more than 100 of Allen's photographs, spanning 2015-2023, many of them never published before. Conceived as a personal narrative about what Allen has called "the texture of us," the book encompasses formal portraits, images of protests and street scenes. These images are presented alongside texts by Darnell L. Moore, Salamishah Tillet, and D. Watkins that provide insight into Allen's process and situate his work within the history of Baltimore.