Devin Allen publishes book of Baltimore photographs, 'A Beautiful Ghetto'

The photographer Devin Allen -- who in less than two years has become one of Baltimore's best-known and well-liked native sons -- is about to publish a book of photographs of his city.

"A Beautiful Ghetto" will be published June 13 by Haymarket Books, an independent firm based in Chicago that specializes in publications aimed at bringing about social change.

According to the listing on Amazon.com, "A Beautiful Ghetto" will include 100 of Allen's black and white photos, including the illustration that made the cover of Time magazine during the April, 2015 uprising after the death of Freddie Gray.

Allen's work reveals "a world of love, courage, struggle and hope," the website says.

"His camera complicates the stereotype of a 'ghetto'. We find smiles where one might least expect them, hope doing battle against a system that sows desperation and fear, and above all, resistance, to the unrelenting pressures of racism in twenty-first-century America."

The book, which has a list price of $22.95, will include a foreword by the Baltimore author and teacher D. Watkins.

After Allen became one of the only amateur photographers to land on the cover of "Time," he was flooded with job offers that would have boosted his career, but that would have required him to relocate.

Allen opted instead to remain in Baltimore. In his spare time, he began teaching photography to at-risk youth, saying he wants to give them a means of expression, a marketable skill and an alternative to violence.

mary.mccauley@baltsun.com