He gained national attention after the Freddie Gray protests in 2015, when his documentary photograph entitled "Baltimore Uprising" was published as Time magazine's May 2015 cover photo.
[2][3] Allen's photographs are held in the Smithsonian collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
[6][7] However, Allen shared his first protest photographs a year later, following the police killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year old black-male resident of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014.
[16] As of 2020, Allen is still active in the Baltimore community and says that his goal when documenting events like the protests is to make sure he tells the whole story.
[2] According to a report on National Public Radio (NPR), Devin Allen received his first camera as a gift from his grandmother in 2013.