Field Niggas

In a cinematic nocturne, photographer Khalik Allah portrays the residents of Harlem - the homeless, thieves, prostitutes, pimps, the consumers and dealers of hard drugs. These are the people gone psycho from excesses of psychoactive drugs or who dropped out of the system for a thousand other reasons and now loiter at night seeking company, profit or a bit of luck. They are all poor, most are black and most are high on liquor and drugs. We listen to their stories, the banal and terrifying, while watching slow-motion, looped close-up images of their bodies and faces. We see the smoke swirling from mouths and nostrils, sweaty skin and glassy eyes. Deep shadows and sharp light. Chiaroscuro like the paintings of Caravaggio; beauty and filth, sanctity and demise, dark and light. Seemingly racist, the title refers to a lecture by Malcolm X that discussed the distinction between the "field negro" and the "house negro."