By TUREKA TURK
Michigan Clt/Dn
It could be id that photog­
rapher Chester Higgins, Jr. h
the ability to capture the souls of
Black people with his cam . In
fact, that would be closer to de­
fining what his life' goal ctu­
ally is.
"My life' goal is to pull to­
gether a photographic encyclo­
pedia of the life and tim of
people of African descent," he
ys. Higgins new collection of
documentation is called, "Feel­
ing The Spirit: Searching the
World for the People of Africa"
(Bantam Books, October 1994)
and is a 26-year-Iong coll ion
of documentation of people of Af­
rican descent.
Higgins pulled 220 photo­
graphs from hi archiv to cap­
ture the spirituality of people
from uch places as Brazil, Mex­
ico, Belize, Suriname, Haiti,
Martinique, Jamaica, England,
ran , oountri on the African
eontin nt, as well the lJnited
Sta
"I have discovered my African
brothers and sisters living all
across the globe and they have
shared with me their spiritu I
lives, their traditions, their his­
tori ," he ys. "In discovering
Photos from "Feeling The Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa" by eke ter Higgins Jr.
the persistence of our culture
and the vitality of our pirit, I
became filled with e teem,
Th peopl - my people have
op ned their live and their
hearts to me in th pirit of Af­
rica."
THE SELF-DESCRIBED
"hunter of ima "managed to
use the cameta as a tool to cap­
ture such moving pictorials as
African historian Dr. John Hen­
rick Clarke becoming an honor­
ary Akan chief, a Baptism at an
Ethiopian Orthodox Church,
and Ethiopian Hebrews in Har­
lem.
"I once visited (a Harlem
synagogue) during Simat Torah,
a holiday celebrating Hebrew
scripture," Higgins said. "A
group of rabbis blew the shofar,
or a ram's horn, a other rabbis
. carried the ynagogue's Torah,
wrapped in embroidered velv t
and topped with ilver crowns,
through the synagogues aisl . "
Higgins does extensive re­
search before visiting and docu­
menting a community or a
village. He discovers tim of the
year when particular public
celebrations take place because
he believ it to be th i t
time for an outsider to enter the
people's liv (or, what he calls,
. "high tid ").
"WHE EVER I MAKE a
portrait, I try to distill the posi­
tive spiritual characteristics of
that person, and find the way
tha t allows them to expre s
them elv most fully. That'
when I push the shutter. It's the
poop 1 ' characte them lv
pe king hrough the film,
, hrough the I ns, h t Lella t he
tory "
Higgins began hIS qu t
participant in th civil
truggl in th 1 1960,
ill attending coil t
Insti ut in Ala ama.
qu
dvanc
• rl hand
•
im of Bl cks in th
m m I then w re 1-
See IMAGES, 82