A renowned Baltimore photographer's impact inspired a generous gift from thousands of miles away.

Devin Allen captures life through the lens of his camera.

"That's an image I captured of my mom singing in the living room. That's actually in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian," said Allen, pointing out photos he hung in his studio in his grandmother's home. "This image was in the show for the 10-year anniversary of Freddie Gray."

Allen gained recognition for his work following the deaths of Freddie Gray and George Floyd, with his photos from the aftermath of both featured on the cover of Time magazine.

"I love for my work to start conversations, those tough conversations that we sometimes don’t like to have," Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News. "The work is to inspire the next generation. Coming from West Baltimore, it can be tough, but I was one of the ones using my art form and found my path, so you know the work is really to inspire the next generation to chase their dreams too. The work is to reveal and shed light on places normally some people wouldn’t go and uplift my community while doing that."

Allen knows his work has impact. But he didn't know how much impact until he received an email about a woman named Tamara Baran, who lived more than 1,000 miles away.

She included Allen in her will.

"We have never met," Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News. "I didn't know her, but you know, her partner and the family and the lawyer said that she had left some money for me in her will ... I thought it was fake, but it wasn't fake."

Her longtime partner said Baran grew up in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s before moving to Charleston and then Utah. She saw how people were treated unjustly because of their skin color, including by law enforcement, and was angry about the deaths of Michael Brown, Gray and Floyd.

Seeing Allen's photos on Instagram in 2015 moved her in a special way.

Baran's partner wrote: "Tamara always went out of her way to care for the bullied or the oppressed and help them find a voice. I'd like to think this contribution is Tamara's way of showing kindness and hope in a cruel world, even after she has left it."

Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News that he's blown away by the gesture.

"To have someone that I've never met love the work and then have the work affect them in that way, it was really inspiring to me," Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News. "This year has been really tough for me, losing my mom and dealing with a grandmother who has dementia. That just kind of lit a fire behind me to continue to do the work that I do even despite being in these dark times."

Allen received a check for around $3,000 and signed the estate paperwork this week.

"To know that the work has touched someone to basically invest in me into being an artist — it takes a community, and sometimes, you don't even really know where that community is at," Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News.

Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News that he plans to use the money to continue fixing up his grandmother's home, which is also his childhood home. He is developing the space into a studio, an art gallery, and eventually, a place where other young artists can grow.