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UNDER THE ARTSXCHANGE ROOF SERIES | The beauty in Black history: Photographer brings love of culture to lens
- Angela Oliver
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
From Buffalo to Atlanta to the Motherland, Tafawa Hicks has documented 50 years of culture across the African Diaspora.
By Angela Oliver | ArtsXchange Media
Inside the ArtsXchange studios, artists of every discipline—legendary Black culture photographers, bold printmakers, evocative burlesque dancers, soul-stirring poets, working actors, and visionary youth arts—bring their work to life. This blog series invites you to look Under the ArtsXchange Roof to discover the makers, dreamers, and creatives shaping the ArtsXchange community.
Tafawa Hicks has always had a profound love for his people and his culture. Deepened by a college trip to the Motherland and demonstrated through his decades of photography, Tafawa has worked to fulfill his mission: Preserving the beauty, history and culture of African people in the African Diaspora.
“We're special,” Tafawa said. “We've had a history of low self-esteem because we've been conditioned to despise ourselves, despise our color, not appreciate who we are. So with my photography, I’ve always tried to bring a sense of self-esteem and pride to the community.”
Born Arthur Hicks in 1947 in Bessemer, Alabama, Tafawa’s family moved to Buffalo, New York during the Second Great Migration when he was about 6 years old. He was drafted at 18 and served six years in the U.S. Army, mostly in Germany, before returning to attend Buffalo State University.
While he was there to earn his bachelor’s degree in psychology and African American studies, he was moved by a single course in photography, and later, a chance student trip to Nigeria became a turning point.
In a rush for 12 language course credits during his junior year, Tafawa planned to go to France before a classmate suggested that he go to Africa.
His group landed in Ghana, then traveled by bus and car through Togo and Benin, to Nigeria. They were met with a tragic turn of events, though. The professors at the then-named University of Ife were on strike. So, instead of attending school in Nigeria for seven weeks, then traveling for one week, they did the opposite.
“We had a big bus and we drove around the country for seven weeks,” he said. “I got to see a lot. I was introduced to new things and I was really into the culture, the people. There was a sense of family among the African people; a real heavy respect for the elders and the ancestors that we didn't necessarily have here (in the U.S.).”
With a life-changing camera that was gifted from his wife Utelsa — the pair had been friends since growing up together in Buffalo’s Jefferson projects — Tafawa was able to capture every moment.
“It was interesting because everybody was very open to me photographing them (in Nigeria),” he said. “I saw some white folks trying to photograph sometimes and they caught a lot of flack. I would imagine the people saw me as themselves. I didn’t think a lot about it at the time, I just enjoyed being in the moment, but that trip changed my perspective on who we were.”
Tafawa graduated in 1975 and shortly after was named Tafawa — “one who is worthy of praise” — by a community elder and photography mentor Brother Simba. He began work with the Buffalo Challenger, a Black Press newspaper; as well as with non-profit organizations, including as a youth counselor at the St. Augustine Center, and opening an African and African American art gallery called Images of Us, where he also did custom framing.
“More than the business, I opened the gallery because of my desire to bring Black art into the community and give us a sense of ourselves, our beauty, history and culture,” he said. It was also a place to socialize as Black folks didn’t always have cultural spaces in Buffalo.
After several years as the personal photographer of Arthur O. Eve, prominent mayoral candidate and deputy speaker of the New York State Assembly, Tafawa ran a workshop teaching photography, videography, and computer skills to underserved youth for 15 years.
While his travels to Mali, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa and Haiti continued, Tafawa, also a father of three and grandfather of six, landed in Atlanta in 2002.
Buffalo, like other areas in the North and Midwest, was losing industries and jobs, and Tafawa had become a substitute teacher.
“I wasn’t happy, but what really made me decide to leave Buffalo was the weather,” he said. “It would usually take me 15 or 20 minutes to get to work, but one day, it snowed and it took me two hours to get home. I was frozen and I made a commitment to be out of Buffalo before the next winter.”
He continued to shoot weddings and events amid his jobs in Atlanta, but didn’t start seeing his photography as art until he moved into a studio at the ArtsXchange. He had met celebrated photographer Jim Alexander, who introduced him to other opportunities for growth and exposure and they’ve been friends ever since.
“I found a community here,” Tafawa said.
Though hundreds of miles away, the ArtsXchange also brought him back to Buffalo in unexpected ways when he met Michelle D. Hare, another Buffalo native who recognized his photos — she had been in one of his photos from her childhood. With her help negotiating, connecting and curating, Tafawa was invited to do an exhibition of his striking black-and-white photographs titled Soul of the City: Memories of Jefferson Avenue and its Neighborhoods, at Buffalo’s CEPA Gallery as part of its 50th anniversary. He is also in talks with the Buffalo Public Libraries.
Tafawa was moved to see a full house at the opening in February, and honored to shine a light on the beauty, struggles, triumphs and resilience of Buffalo’s Black community through the exhibition that will be on view through April 12, 2025.
“I’ve always seen my photography as preserving and documenting our experiences,” Tafawa said. “It is our history. And if you forget your history, you're really forgetting yourself.”
Keep up with Tafawa Hicks on Instagram @photographyby_tafawa and Facebook @photographybytafawa
