Meet Rafa Aremu

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rafa Aremu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rafa, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I truthfully believe it’ comes from to not only to being a black artist in America but a black man. As I’ve traveled the world and read more in my later years, I’ve learned that the world operates on a hierarchical ladder, based on color and finance. It’s been the history of the world. Artists, who share the same skin tone as myself, have been known to knock on twice as many doors as our counterparts in the art field for opportunities, which leaves us with a feeling of having to prove ourselves just to stand with other artists of different race. But it’s something about the African/African-American soul.  Through mud, exhaustion, and refusal, we keep going! It’s a beautiful thing to be an African artist.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My name is Rafa Aremu and I’m a photographer/artist based in Washington, DC. I was born and raised in The District, though I spent an equal amount of my upbringing in PG County, MD. My photography centers, around street, world, fine art, and portrait. I purchased my first camera in Dec 2020 and haven’t looked back since. I’ve always been a fan of photography, since my days at Powell Elementary in NW DC, where I would see the photos of jazz greats by Francis Wolff adorn the walls of the hallway. After losing my father and brother, I, at times, would find myself withdrawn from the world and would find myself using my camera as means to connect and express. And it was often that I did, with the environment, the community, and it’s people. I find photography to be a beautiful art, one based on patience and truth. I hope circumstances and time permits you to see my art one day and hopefully find a connection of some sort. I am a children’s book author as well (4 books to date on Amazon – check author Sharafa Aremu). But I shall be releasing my first photography book in 2024, stay tuned.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

In my journey, the three most important qualities or skills that I adapted to date have been patience, the ability to handle rejection and non response, and passion to veer down untraveled roads. 1) To a photographer starting out in the game, patience is the greatest tool in your drawer. The ability to put your time into your craft continuously, knowing that the only result will be the joy equivalent to the sweat, tears, and long nights that you put in. Just learn your camera and tools and shoot, try to learn your craft in and out and apply! 2) As an artist, the hardest and most beautiful truth will be… You and your art are not for everyone. The next truth is some of your friends won’t clap for you until strangers do. It is was it is. But that should cause you to look at your art and ask yourself, “What am I doing this for? For recognition? For respect? Or to express myself?”. Choose wisely, grasshopper. and 3)The artist you remember are the ones who walk through the door by themselves. Meaning: stop trying to mimic or compare art to other artists. There’s a flare and light that only you as an artist can give. In the art world, it’s okay to steal from others as long as you make it yours! Don’t steal an idea from Dali and give me a Dali presentation. Build off that Dali idea, create your own monument and afterwards tell me what you felt and how or where you got your inspiration. That’s art.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
As a photographer, many and many photographers‘ books.  In fact, too many to name. I try to craft and exercise my mind by looking at photographs from other photographers, as in a way of going to school and educating myself. The only way I can improve my art and self in the world of photography is by admitting that I will always have room to learn and improve. But I also study past and present artists, not necessarily photographers. I believe one of the many mistakes of artists is placing themselves in a box and making that home. So I try to keep my brain in a non-comfortable zone, always ready to explore something new.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Rafa Aremu Photography

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