Cole Park Basketball: Young men playing pickup basketball in Martin Luther King Jr. Park on the Southside of Chicago, 1970.
Fruit of Islam Confronts Gang Violence: Before breaking up into small groups, this gathering of Muslims from the Nation of Islam receive instructions before talking to young people in this public housing community in Chicago.
Former Addict Sings Gospel: At a methadone clinic in a Chicago neighborhood, former addicts meet twice weekly for group sessions with therapy counselors. This woman offered the gospel song Precious Lord to the assembled, 1972.
Can’t Help But Ride The Spirit: An usher at the United House of Prayer surrenders to the sound of the gospel in Harlem, New York, 1994.
Mandela Inaugurated: Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk shake hands at the presidential inauguration of Mr. Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa, 1994.
Minister Conrad Muhammad in White: Minister Conrad Muhammad of Temple #7 Nation of Islam speaks to officers in his security corps before an event at the Harlem Armory, 1993.
Boy Bends Notes on a Broken Trombone: More than a hundred followers of Daddy Grace gather in Central Harlem for an annual August street baptism, organized by the United House of Prayer, 1994.
Township Campaign Rally For Mandela: A Presidential campaign rally for Nelson Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa, 1994.
Nelson Mandela Votes: Nelson Mandela made a symbolic gesture by voting in a Zulu township in Durban, South Africa. Mr. Mandela’s ethnic origin is Khosa, which has been an ethnic rival of the Zulu nation for decades, 1994.
Women’s Auxiliary Listening to Mandela: A lady's auxiliary listens attentively and takes notes as Nelson Mandela gives a campaign speech at this church in Pretoria, South Africa.
South Africa’s New Army: For the first time, blacks are now equals to white soldiers in the South African Defense Forces. This was a military training site in Central South Africa, 1994.
July 18th is Nelson Mandela Day Worldwide: The entire student body at Holy Cross Anglican school joined in singing the Happy Birthday song to Nelson Mandela, who turned 95 years old today, Soweto Township, South Africa, July 18, 2013.
July 18th is Nelson Mandela Day Worldwide: Mr. Mandela turned 95 years old today. More than 100 senior citizens gathered at the Nelson Mandela Heritage Site to celebrate Mandela Day. Food and music was provided by a non-profit organization called Tshedbedisano Support Network in the Alexandra Township, South Africa. Towards the end of this celebration, a brass band arrived and provided free entertainment. It fit the theme of volunteerism in this nation and throughout the world in recognition to the sacrifices Mr. Mandela and others made to bring an end to apartheid, July 18, 2013.
Child, Flies and Mother: A woman oblivious to the flies plaguing her child, waits to see a doctor at a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Faces In Emergency Camp: Children as they were being fed by the surviving parent, or parents in a dislocation camp in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Girl Clutches Biscuit: An Ethiopian girl clutches a biscuit as she is weighed in a tent where a medical team from Doctors Without Borders were providing care, 1984.
OWS March in Downtown Manhattan: Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march down Broadway in Lower Manhattan, 2011.
A Week of Provisions: A man holds a week of provisions provided by one of the non-governmental organizations that responded to the famine crisis in Ethiopia, 1984.
U.S. Senator Barack Obama while on the campaign trail.
New York Police Department Senior Officers Helped to Make Arrests: More than 700 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were arrested when they defied an order not to march in the roadways of the Brooklyn Bridge, 2011.
OWS Hold Demonstration: Occupy Wall Street demonstrators gathered in Foley Square near the jail known as the Tombs in Lower Manhattan demanding the release of demonstrators who had been recently arrested while marching on the Brooklyn Bridge, Oct. 2011.
Barack Obama is greeted by Jill Biden, former presidents, members of the senate and the congress as the ceremony gets underway in which Mr. Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office, 2009.
Obama on the Hustings: Senator Barack Obama on the campaign trail in pursuit of the President of the United States, June 2008.
EARTHQUAKE ORPHANS: Orphans of the January 12th earthquake are gathered in a field next to Lycee Jacques, a primary school. They are under the care of FRADES, a grass roots organization which is providing foster care, Croix Des Bouquets, Haiti, 2010.
EARTHQUAKE ORPHANS: Orphans of the January 12th earthquake are gathered in a field next to Lycee Jacques, a primary school. They are under the care of FRADES, a grass roots organization which is providing foster care, Croix Des Bouquets, Haiti, 2010.
EARTHQUAKE ORPHANS: Orphans of the January 12th earthquake are gathered in a field next to Lycee Jacques, a primary school. They are under the care of FRADES, a grass roots organization which is providing foster care, Croix Des Bouquets, Haiti, 2010.
EARTHQUAKE ORPHANS: Orphans of the January 12th earthquake are gathered in a field next to Lycee Jacques, a primary school. They are under the care of FRADES, a grass roots organization which is providing foster care, Croix Des Bouquets, Haiti, 2010.
At the funeral of 1st Sgt. Charles M. King in Ohio: Former journalist, editor and now book publisher, Dana Candy, holds her child Jordan, at the funeral of his father, 1st Sergeant Charles M. King, who was killed October 14th, 2006 in Iraq. Also in the photograph is the daughter of King and his parents, 2006.
Emotions Rise at Levee Wall: On the Memorial Day holiday scores of people came to the Industrial Canal’s Levee in New Orleans to remember the people who died here when Hurricane Katrina’s arrival caused it to breech, May 5, 2005.
Citizen Ceremony For Dead Soldiers and Others in Harlem: Maria Alcántara, center, and her daughter Fredelinda Peña, in striped sweater, took the citizenship oath for Ms. Alcántara’s son, Cpl. Juan Alcántara, who died in Iraq, 2007.
Campaign Workers for Falae: Nigerian boys in makeup with the African Peoples Party (AFP) letters painted on their skin. The APP challenger Olu Falae lost the election of the presidency of Nigeria to Olusegon Obasanjo, 1999.
Drums and Trumpet on Wall Street: Members of the Occupy Wall Street Movement marched from Zucotti Park to the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the trading day, 2011.
Dancing Harry: This man known as Dancing Harry was a fixture near the Apollo Theater in Harlem in the 1990’s. He would put a board on the ground, and slide, and make his moves to the music of soul singer James Brown, and collect substantial tips in a coffee can, 1994.
Dancing Harry: This man known as Dancing Harry was a fixture near the Apollo Theater in Harlem in the 1990’s. He would put a board on the ground, and slide, and make his moves to the music of soul singer James Brown, and collect substantial tips in a coffee can, 1994.
Dancing Harry: This man known as Dancing Harry was a fixture near the Apollo Theater in Harlem in the 1990’s. He would put a board on the ground, and slide, and make his moves to the music of soul singer James Brown, and collect substantial tips in a coffee can, 1994.
Church Boy: A boy stands on the corner of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Jr. Boulevard a moment before he crossed on his way to church at the United House of Prayer For All People, June 1994.
Muhammad Speaks After Hours: A member of the National of Islam sells the Final Call, also known in the later part of the 20th Century as Muhammad Speaks, in the late evening on 125th Street, Harlem, New York, 1994.
Blown Headlines: High winds blow loose newspaper pages around 125th street in Harlem near the IRT Subway entrance as some people make their way to work that morning, 2006.
Ozier Muhammad (b. 1950) is an African American photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer from Chicago who has documented the cultural events of African Americans across the world for over four decades. Muhammad is dedication to utilizing photography as a truth telling medium that explores racial issues throughout society and sheds light on the daily struggles of the African and African American communities.
Muhammad is the grandson of Nation of Islam Founder Elijah Muhammad who mentored popular figures of the civil rights movement including Malcom X and Muhammad Ali. During Muhammad’s childhood he was surrounded by other influential figures such as Gordon Parks, the first African American photographer for Life magazine. Seeing Parks’ powerful photographs of the civil rights movement peeked Muhammad’s interest and inspired him to pursue a career in photojournalism.
Muhammad began his career in Chicago in the early 1970’s as a staff photographer at Jet and Ebony magazines. Both publications were devoted to telling the intricate stories of African Americans that were not covered in white-owned magazines. He began traveling to Africa in 1974 to report on the impoverished circumstances and racial disparities across the continent. In 1985 while working for Newsday, his report “Africa, The Desperate Continent” earned him a joint Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
In 1994 he documented Nelson Mandela’s historic presidential win to become the first non-white president of South Africa. In 1992 Muhammad became a staff photographer for The New York Times where he went on to cover President Obama’s revolutionary journey of becoming the first African American president of the United States in 2008. Muhammad’s work captures the incredibly empowering moments in black history and serves as an influential voice for his own community.
From Harlem to Kenya, Muhammad has worked as a cultural anthropologist by taking an honest look at the world around him and recording moments in history. His work has brought awareness to the hardships and triumphs that have been, and continue to be, experienced by Africans and African Americans alike. In a photograph taken during his travels to Ethiopia we see a severely malnourished Ethiopian girl whose fragile limbs dangle from a weighing scale while under the care of Doctors Without Borders. Muhammad’s work documents both the difficult and poignant experiences that represent what life is like for many black citizens around the world. In one photograph we see a young boy as he joyfully plays his trombone in the streets of Harlem while another photograph shows an unyielding line of Nation of Islam men as they stand ready for a combatant show of force in a housing project within the African American community. Whether documenting global events or everyday moments in Harlem, Muhammad is dedicated to photographing his community with honesty and compassion.
Muhammad’s work is in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Bank of America, Haverford College and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
