Chester Higgins, Jr. is the undisputable preeminent photographer of the African Diaspora. His books of photographs and his exquisite narrative essays of ordinary and extraordinary African Americans and Africans living in other parts of the world are invaluable contributions to human development and culture. When I taught African Psychology, I required my students to study Chester Higgins’ work and write at least one essay from his work on African world culture, consciousness and connectedness. I discovered the work of Chester Higgins when I saw an image called Moslem woman (1990. I taught my students that if someone comes to your home they should know who you are by the material culture in your home – the artifacts, photographs, textiles, etc., which reflects your heritage, what you think is beautiful or important. I am not a Moslem, though I have travelled extensively throughout the Islamic world; yet, I knew Higgins’ stunning photograph, Moslem woman, uniquely and powerfully captured young, Black womanhood. Subsequently, I acquired a copy of the photo. I have learned that many of my students have bought Chester Higgins’s books and have also given them as gifts. Preservation of African American and African culture is our responsibility. Who can love the images of us better than us?
Brief Bio of Chester Higgins Jr.
Chester Higgins Jr. is a photographer on a mission. His mission is to embrace, to reaffirm and to challenge. Higgins believes art humanizes us, the subjects of his photographs are most important to him. Higgins gives voice to the unseen interior spirit. His images resonate with a spiritual echo, which maintains the image and frees it from the constraints of time. Much of Higgins’ imagery is inspired by issues of identity. Over the past five decades, he has produced six books of compelling images reflecting a sensitive and in-depth diary of his explorations of the human Diaspora and his concern with his own humanity.
Higgins’ images of ordinary moments enable us to see and appreciate the fullness of humanity. Through his interior portraits and studies of living rituals and ancient civilizations, viewers gain a rare insight into cultural behavior, a window to another place and time. “With the camera I embrace the spirit that is the essence of all existence,” Higgins says. “I search for the signature of the spirit in my subjects, and through my art, I become whole.” Higgins is the author of the photo collections Black Woman, Drums of Life, Some Time Ago, Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa, Elder Grace, and his memoir Echo of the Spirit.
A native Alabamian, he has been a staff photographer for The New York Times since 1975; his photographs have appeared in ArtNews, New York Times Sunday Magazine, Look, Life and Newsweek. His one-man exhibitions have appeared at the International Center of Photography, The Museum of Photographic Arts, The Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of African Art, Musée Dapper Paris, The Schomburg Center, The New-York Historical Society and The Schatten Gallery at Emory University. View his art, enjoy his website at: www.chesterhiggins.com
Interview With Chester Higgins, Jr.
JAHANNES: When did you know you wanted to capture the images of African Americans and Africans in the Diaspora as a lifelong pursuit?
HIGGINS: In 1965, when I realized that positive images of people of color were lacking in the media and that I did not know the whole story of my people. My ignorance of our story (and the USA is only one-tenth of the total African experience) left me a victim to the popular criticism offered in the media, antagonistic to African people. Internalizing this media diet, labeling African Americans as ‘the people of trouble’ sustains our collective alienation from each other and from white American culture and reinforces white America’s rejection of us. Because of my relationship in the 60’s with African students studying at Tuskegee University and my involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, the idea and need to travel to Africa became an imperative. Making that journey, traveling so far from the shores of the United States and living among continental Africans, seemed less frightening to me at the age of 25 than remaining in an American environment with unchecked racism. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew that I was not traveling to Africa to see the animals. The change in physical setting gave me distance from the issues of race and allowed me the space to appreciate the fullness of African humanity. In American media, we were always projected as the problem. With few exceptions, three issues were absent when my people were represented visually: decency, dignity and virtuous character. Rather than rail against the people who refused to see these human qualities, I decided to make my own contribution. I began to create images to show these qualities in our lives for our own benefit and to challenge those who saw us in such a narrow way. My work is about identity. My hope is that it will add to the understanding of ourselves and enhance our sense of oneness.
JAHANNES: What has been the most important recognition of your work, in your estimation?
HIGGINS: The most important recognition for me is when the individual viewers see something in the image that pulls them in and causes an ah-ha moment in their thinking. My mission is to redefine the visual document as it relates to people of color.
JAHANNES: Can you take me through your thinking process when making photographs?
HIGGINS: Behind everything, there is an energy, a spirit, an essence that gives it its own unique presence. Photography is my means to appreciate numerous reflections of my collective self. The camera is my vehicle for discovery. For me, the portrait highlights what is visually pleasing. My search for the signature of the spirit takes me beyond what meets the eye. It is the spirit, occupying the moment, that I find most intriguing. My challenge is to recognize and render it visually. I seek to produce a photograph that presents the obvious, sometimes the ordinary, but goes further to reveal the hidden spirit.
JAHANNES: What’s the story behind capturing your ‘Tamale Girl’ image that fills the 4 story atrium of the (MoAD) Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco? (To see more go to http://www.moadsf.org/)
HIGGINS: I made this image one summer in the 1970s while living in Ghana. Growing up in a small town, I preferred the quiet of villages. Instinct, honed from my southern background, came in handy deciding which strangers to bring close to me and which to avoid. I became a wandering student, making friends and living among the people. My objective was to be a witness to daily routines, much like a fly on the wall.
One early morning in the northern town of Tamale in Ghana, I took a walk to the local bus station. I lingered, leaning against the wall to watch the rush of people jumping into and off open busses. With my camera lens, I scanned and waited; then suddenly among the throng this little young girl appeared. Using body language, I asked her to stop so I could photograph her. She did. Because of her age and spirit, she reminded me of my own young daughter, waiting for my return to Brooklyn. Noticing her specially groomed eyebrows, I suddenly imagined her to be the center of a large, loving family.
JAHANNES: Can you briefly discuss the motivation for your major books? Why were they important for you to have produced?
HIGGINS: One of my mentors, artist Romare Bearden, after looking at my portfolio, said to me, “I see that you are good at making finger exercises, but can you make a symphony?” This was a challenge I took to heart. It meant that I had to learn how to string individual images together to make a comprehensive statement. Following this formula, I began to see that a book, my symphony, would allow me to reach a larger audience.
JAHANNES: I view your work as not only photography, but as anthropology, and cultural history. How do you react to those labels?
HIGGINS: Labels are based on how others see you. I see myself as a visual artist interested in the signature of the spirit. In some ways, I do work as a cultural anthropologist and historian with a camera. My interest is in what people do and believe, and how they define themselves.
JAHANNES: By the way, your essays are brilliant. I tend to look through your books at the photographs first, then go back and read the essays in order. I truly cannot say which is more powerful, but together they are without parallel.
HIGGINS: Writing is the most difficult part of what is required for my books and essays. For writing, I’m more dependent on my wife who doubles as my editor. For us, it’s a collaboration where she takes my rough thoughts and helps me refine them into prose.
JAHANNES: Are there other major themes that you would like to explore in future compilations of work? What can we expect next from the mind and lens of Chester Higgins Jr.?
HIGGINS: The history of religion has always interested me. My first trip to Egypt was in 1973; viewing the monumental pyramids, temples and tombs caused me to rethink everything I thought I knew about religion. Because of my time spent and research in this ancient environment, I came to appreciate the sacredness of Africa and the river Nile – the spiritual nursery for all the world’s major religions.
In my book, Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey, I talk at length about my journeys in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. For the past thirty years, I have returned annually to these three countries along the Nile to make photographs of the ancient religious sites – spiritual markers that reveal the wonderful story of the African spiritual mind. On my website, see “Current Projects Portfolio” where you will find some of these images entitled “Before Genesis.”
http://www.chesterhiggins.com/before_genesis.html?gallery=before_genesis
© 2010 by Ja A. Jahannes.
Dr. Ja A. Jahannes is a poet, psychologist, educator, writer, and a social critic. He is a frequent columnist and his work has appeared in diverse publications and anthologies. Jahannes has lectured throughout the U. S., in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, the Middle East and Europe. Jahannes’ forthcoming poetry memoir anthology is Fire and Lightning: Langston Hughes, Larry Neal, Ron Welburn, Everett Hoagland, Keorapetse William Kgositsile, and Gil Scott-Heron. Contact: ja.jahannes@toonarimedia.com | twitter.com/jajahannes
This is very good. We need more especially in light of the fact that “we” insist on calling ourselves African Americans.
Very insightful and thought provoking. A refreshing reminder of the powerful messages and stories that are told using the art of photography.