physically and emotionally, and I feel like it could do the same for
so many younger kids,” he says. He started a GoFundMe
campaign for his program called Inspire the Youth in June 2015,
and it quickly gained local attention before reaching Russell
Simmons, who donated $25,000.
Allen was equipped with cameras and enthusiasm, but his first
efforts fell somewhat flat. “I was like, ‘Who wants to learn
photography?’ The kids cussed me out,” he recalls with a laugh.
But when 20 students had dwindled to five, he had curated a small
but passionate group. His next attempt, in collaboration with
Windsor Hill Elementary/Middle School, resulted in so much
interest that Allen held an essay contest to select 10 students.
Their work resulted in a photo exhibit at the Baltimore art center
Motor House. The following workshop, at Kids Safe Zone,
garnered national media attention. Although his own career and
the pandemic have made running a regular program difficult,
Allen continues to visit schools and regularly hands out cameras to
kids in the community — an estimated 600 to date.
Recently, while on a photo shoot for the opening credits of
HBO series “We Own This City,” Allen ran into Keshana Miller,
20, seven years after he taught her at Kids Safe Zone. “She came
and showed me some of her recent work that she’s done using her
phone and told me how she’s still into photography,” he says.
Impressed by her dedication, Allen promised to get Miller a
camera. As Miller prepares to finish high school this summer, in
spite of some setbacks, she says art is vital to her life: “Art is a part
of me. It helps me become a better person because it motivates
me.”
Allen recognizes that remaining on home turf has categorized
him with the civil rights movement and street photography, but
sees it not so much as a niche as a calling. Staying in Baltimore also
makes him more accessible to the people he wants to inspire: “At
the end of the day, when I’m old and I can’t hold a camera steady
no more, I’m going to measure my own personal success by how
many kids I saved,” he says. “That’s why I’m still in Baltimore.”Carita Rizzo is a writer based in Paris.essence in humanity in the subject matter,” Kunhardt says.
The young people that Allen talks to don’t care about
fellowships, book releases or magazine covers. It’s when Allen tells
them he regularly photographs basketball star Stephen Curry for
Baltimore-based sports gear company Under Armour that they
perk up. This is Allen’s entry to let them know his life didn’t start
out so differently from theirs.
Allen grew up in the West Forest Park neighborhood, the son
of a strong matriarch. “I was spoiled,” he says. “I didn’t have all the
designer things that I wanted, but all the snacks in the world and
electricity always on.” Even so, Allen started to sell drugs in high
school. It lasted just six years, but in that time Allen says he had
lost more than five close friends to gun violence.
When he became a father at 21, he decided his hustling days
were over. Turning to street photography, Allen became obsessed
with documenting his surroundings, teaching himself the
technical aspects through YouTube tutorials. Photography, he
says, saved his life in ways that are not always metaphorical. When
his best friend was killed, Allen recognized how easily he could
have been present. “The only reason I wasn’t with him is because I
went to go take pictures,” he says. “I turned to alcohol for a while to
cope. But photography was really my medium to release that
stress.”
Nothing could prepare him for how having all eyes on him
would feel. The first Time cover brought with it national attention,
but his success in the wake of a community in crisis weighed on
Allen, who says he attempted suicide shortly after he started to
gain notoriety. “My success is built on the broken back of Freddie
Gray. It’s in the back of my mind every day,” says Allen, whose
daily participation in the months-long uprising contributed to the
stress. “We were getting tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed. I was
getting harassed by police. ... I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t taking care
of myself. I’m dealing with my own personal PTSD and depression
that I got from growing up here,” he says. “It was just too
overwhelming. I cracked, you know.”
It was shortly thereafter that Allen, now 34, felt he needed his
own brand of activism to evolve. “Photography saved me mentally,
Students taking
photographs in
Baltimore in 2015.
Photograph by Devin
Allen