PHOTO ALBUM
The Many Modes of Khaleeq Alfred
If there’s a common thread running through Khaleeq Alfred’s photographs of New Yorkers on skateboards, rollerblades and bikes, it is the rapid movement of the city itself. “New York is one of the only places where you don’t need a car to get around and it’s a lot easier if you don’t have one,” he says. “It is a fast-paced lifestyle, and bikes and skateboards are fast, so it just fits better.” But his photography is about more than just getting from place to place, Alfred explains. “Traffic surfing makes you one with the city, whether it is a skateboard or bike or blades or a scooter. There is a vibe, and atmosphere, and energy, and streetness that you don’t get anywhere else.”
Growing up in Harlem, Alfred learned to skate, blade, and bike as a way to get around the city. He found a high school photography class around the same time he was getting comfortable surfing the streets, and what started as a way from A to B became art. These days Alfred is rarely off his bike, shooting digital (on a Canon 1DX Mark 2) as well as film (on a Bronica SQA). The more time he spends in the streets, the more he sees the cyclists and skaters as artists themselves.
“I have seen people carry the most ridiculous stuff on their back — boxes four or five feet in the air above their heads,” Alfred says. “To be able to carry that and know where you’re going without having to look at a map, and ride fast through New York City traffic, it is an amazing art form. I genuinely feel like the world needs to see these talented individuals.” Alfred counted his friend Aurilla Lawrence (pictured below left) among those. She was killed by a hit-and-run driver earlier this year.
As for cars, Khaleeq Alfred is not interested — and not just because there is less beauty to be found in the combustion engine than alongside the biking, skating, blading masses. “Like most real New Yorkers,” he says, “I don’t know how to drive.”
Check out the photography of Khaleeq Alfred at khaleeqphotography.com.
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