Chester Higgins Jr.
Chester Higgins Jr. (born November 1946) is an American photographer,[1][2][3][4] who was a staff photographer with The New York Times for more than four decades, and whose work has notably featured the life and culture of people of African descent.[5][6] His photographs have over the years appeared in magazines including Look, Life, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Ebony, Essence and Black Enterprise, and Higgins has also published several collections of his photography, among them Black Woman (1970), Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa (1994), Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging (2000), and Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey (2004).[7]
Chester Higgins Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Higgins in 1994 | |
| Born | 1946 (age 74–75) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Photography |
Life and work
Higgins was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in New Brockton, Alabama.[8] He attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), where he was mentored by the school's official photographer, P. H. Polk, and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in business management.[8] Higgins worked as a photographer for The New York Times from 1975 and exhibited in museums throughout the world.[2]
His work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has been included in numerous book collections and appeared in publications such as Newsweek, Fortune, Look, Essence and Life.
In Before Genesis, Higgins narrates the story of the African beginnings of spirituality, antecedents of the Biblical world along the River Nile from the 6,000-foot high mountains of Kush (modern-day Ethiopia) through Nubia (Sudan) down to the ancient land of Kemet (Egypt).
Higgins is represented by the Peter Fetterman Gallery of Santa Monica, California.[9]
Published books
- with Fisher, Marjorie M; Peter Lacovara; Salima Ikram; Ssue H. D'Auria. Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile. American University Press Cairo, October 2012.
- with Betsy Kissam. Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey, New York: Doubleday, October 2004. .
- with Betsy Kissam. Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging, Boston: Bulfinch Press, November 2000.
- Feeling The Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa, New York: Bantam Books, 1994. A portrait of the African Diaspora.
- with Coombs, Orde, Some Time Ago, New York: Doubleday/Anchor Press, 1980. A historical portrait of blacks in the United States between 1850 and 1950.
- with Coombs, Orde, Drums of Life, New York: Doubleday/Anchor Press. A portrait of the universality of men and the uniqueness of being black in the 1970s.
- with McDougall, Harold, Black Woman, New York: McCalls Publishing, 1970. A portrait of the universality of women and the uniqueness of being black during the 1960s.
- with Machobane, Burns, Student Unrest at Tuskegee Institute: A Chronology, Behavioral Science Research Institute, Tuskegee University, Alabama, 1968. An academic community in conflict and its resolution.
References
- Suzanne Muchnik, "Traveling the Globe to Document the Spirit of a People", Los Angeles Times, January 6, 1996.
- Chester Higgins Jr biography, BrotherMen, PBS.
- "Chester Higging: Omo Spirit Narrative", Tadias.com, March 5, 2009.
- Pete Dulin, "Invoking the Spirit: The Photography of Chester Higgins", Present Magazine, April 11, 2007. Archived July 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- "Chester Higgins Jr.", All About Photo.
- Patrick A. Howell, "Iconic Photographer Chester Higgins Jr. Opens Our World through the Lens of His I", The Good Men Project, February 14, 2018.
- "Chester Higgins, Jr. Biography", The HistoryMakers.
- Biography at Chester Higgins Jr website.
- "Chester Higgins Jr." at Peter Fetterman Gallery.
