Souls Against the Concrete | Khalik Allah
GPP Photo Week | Exhibition
One of the region's longest running photography festivals, GPP Photo Week champions photography as a visual medium which engages audiences in dialogue while providing unique opportunities to share nuanced perspectives and alternative histories. The core of the festival is educational, with workshops, talks and masterclasses that shape and inspire tomorrow's visual storytellers.
Each year the festival begins with an exciting evening unveiling multiple new photography exhibitions in Dubai's cultural district, Alserkal Avenue. The 2018 edition included the work of Khalik Allah, exhibited in Concrete, a multidisciplinary exhibition space within the district. I was responsible for the curating, and producing this exhibition and four others for the festival including the work of Laura El-Tantawy, Jalal Sepehr, and Osborne Macharia.
Khalik Allah is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker whose work has been described as "street opera", simultaneously visceral, hauntingly beautiful, and penetrative. His primary source of inspiration derives from the people he photographs on the corner of 125th and Lexington Avenue in Harlem, a project which has developed into a documentary film, as well as a book, entitled Souls Against the Concrete.
Shooting analogue at night using only the artificial light that pours from storefronts, street lights, cars, and flashing ambulances, Khalik Allah captures dignified portraits of a marginalized community that has found themselves, for one reason or another, living on the street or merely passing through.
In addition to exhibiting his powerful collection, Souls Against the Concrete, Khalik Allah will be unveiling a new series portraying individuals from the Arab diaspora living in New York City, in partnership with Cadillac. The co-created collection continues the campaign by Cadillac titled ‘Arabs of New York’ that aims to highlight the contribution and affect Arabs have had in America.
See more work by Khalik Allah on his website.