Photojournalist Chester Higgins Jr. is a photographic visionary with a mission.
His mission is to express to the world, through his photography, the beauty, humanity and dignity that lives within the African and African American communities. He conveys the richness and soul that breathes the life into these complex human beings.
The detailed complexities of both bodies of people are a constant theme living within his images. In other words, his work has been a constant supporter of the perpetuation of African beauty and African pride.
Rather than the constant portrayal of the stereotypical negative stigmas that remain attached to both bodies of people such as: famine, massive death tolls, crime, slavery and civil war.
In his career, Chester Higgins Jr. has captured some of the most prolific images to date.
An astute alumnus of Tuskegee Institute (1970), currently (Tuskegee University), and an Alabama native, Higgins’ love for photography was discovered accidentally. He stated when he realized he had no photos of his family, particularly his beloved dear aunt and uncle who raised him, he began bringing his camera home from school and started documenting his home life. “It taught me where home was, and to appreciate home.” It also began his discovery of the many reflections of himself.
Growing up, he was heavily influenced by the Civil Rights era and the African union, this influence better prepared him for his first journey to Africa.
He learned that the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU) was celebrating their 10th anniversary of the (OAU) summit in May of 1973. He stated “I wanted to see what African leaders looked like, so I got all my pennies together and left for Africa.” Two years fresh out of college, he decided to fly down to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to document the massive event. During the summit he got the chance to photograph, then Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I.
The one memory that stands out for Mr. Higgins during that experience was a sighting of Selassie walking through the airport with his huge entourage. He stretched his neck out far enough to gain the emperor’s attention, but the emperor didn’t even acknowledge his presence while walking past him. Mr. Higgins later found out that the emperor always focused 30 feet ahead of him so by the time he reached Chester, he had already seen him.
That is also the time he decided he wanted to be an artist. Today most artists believe Mr. Higgins’ creative mind has realized its third eye and continues to generate photographic genius.
Chester Higgins Jr. has been a staff photojournalist for the New York Times since 1975. The stories he has captured for them have been some of the most telling images captured in the publication’s history.
In the New York Times Lens Project, 'Portraits of Significant New Yorkers', each photograph is a compelling visual look into his subjects’ emotions. Fragments of each of their personae lives in every image.
Mr. Higgins has managed to build a bridge between art and emotion and it is evident that he becomes one with his subjects. This style of photography has propelled him to enormous heights in the arts and continues to be celebrated all over the world. He is revered as one of the quintessential contributors to the African and African American Diasporan vision.
In ‘Black Women’, he captures the infinite beauty and uniqueness that is a black woman. His portrayal of the elders in ‘Elder Grace’ is stellar. He manages to convey the evolving gradualism of their journeys into elder state, all the while confirming that beauty can be infinite.
Currently, Mr. Higgins’ 13 piece still project “Stars of Ethiopia”, is on display at New York University’s Kimmel Center in the West Village. He shared with me that this selection of prints were an excerpt from an even larger photographic scope of southern Africa that is still in progress.
Stars of Ethiopia is a 24 hour outdoor exhibit featuring 13 images measuring 70″ x 80″, all conveying a different page from Ethiopian life. The exhibit is back lit at night so that the images are constantly spotlighted for all of NYC nightlife to see as well.
He has been documenting this project for over 4 years, shooting in 12 to 15 different Ethiopian villages; accumulating over 60,000 images to date.
The energies he envelopes in each photo featured in the 13 piece exhibit states emphatically, Ethiopia is more than famine, slavery and civil war; they are also strength, courage, beauty and most importantly human.
One passerby whispered aloud: "Chester Higgins Jr. brought a part of his soul to the West Village.”
Mr. Higgins’s visual collection of compelling imagery will be on display at the Kimmel Center until 5/1/11.
He aslo stated that the show is slated for another exhibit at the University of Australia.
Stay tuned for the upcoming exclusive interview with Chester Higgins Jr. in Part Two of “Chester Higgins: A Man and his Vision.”
please click on the following link for additional photo coverage:
http://sopiphotography.com/2011/04/20/chester-higgins-jr-a-man-a-his-vision/
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