# Arthur Jafa [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Jafa) ( 1960 – ) ## Description American artist and cinematographer whose assemblage films splice found and original footage into rhythmic meditations on Black life, style, and vernacular expression; also known for his writing on "Black visual intonation" and the search for a specifically Black cinematic grammar. ## Key Tags #found-footage #essay-film #installation #contemporary #black-study ## Essential Works - [Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Jafa) (2016) - 7-minute montage of archival and found footage set to Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam," juxtaposing Black suffering and joy; his best-known single work - "My Black Death" / "69" (early 1990s essays) - early formulations of "Black visual intonation," a filmic grammar analogous to Black musical/vernacular rhythm - Cinematography for *Daughters of the Dust* (dir. Julie Dash, 1991) - landmark work that established his reputation as a cinematographer before his own artist practice ## Details Trained as a cinematographer (ASC), shooting music videos and features including Spike Lee's *Crooklyn* before turning to gallery-based assemblage work in the 2010s. His montage practice treats found footage — news, sports, home video, film clips — as raw material for essayistic, musically structured meditations on race, style, and spectacle, continuing the found-footage lineage while foregrounding a specifically Black aesthetic sensibility. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Black Studies]] - "Black visual intonation" and assemblage practice theorizing a specifically Black cinematic grammar ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Jafa, Arthur. "My Black Death." *Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture*, edited by Greg Tate, Broadway Books, 2003. Essay developing the concept of Black visual intonation and vernacular aesthetics. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Copeland, Huey. "Love is the Message, The Message is Death." *ASAP/Journal*, 4 June 2018. Close critical reading of the film's found-footage assemblage and its treatment of Black spectacle and suffering.