In stunning photographs and an intimate, moving narrative, award-winning New
York Times photographer, Chester Higgins, chronicles his forty-year quest to
capture and celebrate the singular, defining qualities of people, places, and
events.
As a New York Times photographer, Higgins has taken glorious, one-of-a-kind
pictures of people from all walks of life and covered grim disasters and
history-making events. Throughout his career, Higgins has also pursued a more
personal mission: in unforgettable photographs, he has documented the history
and lives of people of African American and African descent.
ECHO OF THE SPIRIT
is Higgins's most personal work to date. In photographs rich in spirit and
memory and a simple but elegant text, he focuses on the significant people and
events of his own life, from his days as a boyhood preacher in New Brockton,
Alabama, where he was reared by his mother and stepfather, to his first
encounters with the works of great photographers during his student years, to
his emergence as a highly respected and much admired photojournalist. There are
images and memories of his favorite great uncle, Forth, who died at the age of
107, and of his aunt Shug, a masterful quilt maker. He pays tribute to his
mentors-P. H. Polk, Cornell Capa, Gordon Parks, Romare Bearden, and Arthur
Rothenstein at Look magazine-describing their lessons and their influence on
his work. Higgins's extraordinary ability to get to the spirit of things-the
essence of what makes people and places come alive, makes them interesting,
beautiful, or ugly-resonates throughout ECHO OF THE SPIRIT. It is a remarkable
look at a creative life and the cultural history that shaped it. |
