Jamaica-born visual artist Albert Chong, 47, is the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s resident visiting artist from April 10 to 15, and will deliver on April 13 a public lecture about his use of photography to capture spirituality. The talk, titled “Photographing Spirituality and the Creation of Resonance,” begins at 3:30 p.m. in HSSB 6020.

Chong is “Jamaica’s most famous living artist,” says Kip Fulbeck, professor of art and a cosponsor, with ethnomusicologist Tim Cooley, of Chong’s visit. “His work investigates personal mysticism and belief systems, and has been integral to the discourse surrounding race, identity, and spirituality in art for the past two decades,” adds Fulbeck.

An expert in reggae music, Chong often incorporates singing and music into his lectures and workshops. Cooley, an associate professor of music, says that what drew him to Chong’s work was how the visual artist used music as a tool of personal identity.

During his residency, Chong’s activities will include a master class for photography students, a lecture on reggae music, and the creation of an artwork as well as the public lecture.

The last of nine children in a family of Chinese-African ancestry, the artist has great affection and respect for portraits of family members. He is the father of two children, a son named Ayinde and a daughter named Chinese, and one of his many exhibitions is titled “Family Love.”

Additionally, the photo-montage accompanying this article is Chong’s version of the only existing image of his mother when she was a child. She is the smallest of the three girls in the original photograph. The other two are cousins.

The picture had been damaged and his mother asked if he could repair it. Deciding that the best thing he could do was rephotograph the image, Chong writes that “this process opened (my) mind” to the multiple possibilities of photography.