Note: Bill and I worked on this biography when he was putting together an exhibit of his photographs for ETA Theatre and Cultural Center in Chicago. For more than 20 years Bill and I put together historical exhibitions and films. We often traveled to places like New Orleans and Mississippi to document historic events. Last year we partnered on our last project, as a part of the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Research Commission, we documented slavery in Illinois and in the Mississippi River valley from Illinois to New Orleans. Many of the photographs on this website and in this book came from that trip. Old friend I will miss you...Toni

Biography

Onikwa Bill Wallace

I am a native Chicagoan.  I have a lifelong fascination with images that began when my uncle gave me a camera for my tenth birthday. When I was thirteen, my family moved into a new apartment. Our new landlord was a hobbyist photographer who had a darkroom; he was anxious to teach me everything he could about photography.  Under his watchful eye, I developed skills that led to a career in photography. Over the next few years, I studied painting, sculpture and music.  I took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and The South Side Community Art Center. 

After graduating from high school, I was drafted into the Army in 1959.  I was stationed in Germany while the Berlin Wall was being built. In the Army I served as an armor intelligence specialist. I also contributed photographs to the Stars and Stripes newspaper and to the Post Information Office.

After being honorably discharged from the Army, in 1962, I began my professional career. I took a job at a small studio on the Southside of Chicago where I sharpened my photographic skills, by shooting everything from portraits to tabletop products.  Slowly I became obsessed with photojournalism.  By 1967, almost all of my work was documentary.  I photographed jazz musicians, street scenes, the Civil Rights movement and more. 

I became very active with the Civil Rights movement and covered the James Meredith March Against Fear through Mississippi, and many others.  I contributed photographs from various marches and rallies to the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and Mohammed Speaks newspapers. In the late 1960’s, the Poor People’s Corporation in Mississippi started Southern Media, an organization created to teach filmmaking to African-American, who were almost non-existent in the industry at that time.  I moved to Jackson, Mississippi to participate in the program which was launched by Gere Martin, who was the Director of Design for the San Francisco Art Institute.  For a year I lived between Jackson, Mississippi and New York City so that I could also study filmmaking in National Educational Television’s (NET) Minority Training Program.

In 1970, I returned to Chicago and spent four years as a staff photographer for the Chicago Defender newspaper.  I also accepted many freelance film assignments; these assignments ranged from documentary to feature films.

I accepted a position at Malcolm X College in 1974.  I was hired to create learning modules for a variety of subjects such as reading and science that could be individualized based on student needs.  At that time, this was an innovative, state of the art, multi-media teaching tool.  My team of developers included graphic artists, writers, and academic specialists in each subject.

I left Chicago again in 1977, and moved to Memphis to work as circulation manager and photographer for the Tri-State Defender newspaper.  I then accepted a position as news cameraman for WHBK-13 for two and a half years. I then moved to WREG-TV where I worked as producer / cameraman for Dateline Memphis, a weekly public affairs show. This field produced magazine format program had shows that required writing stories and editing.  I co-produced this program for over five years. Concurrently, I operated a part time photography studio that did advertising and public relations assignments for the Shaw Group and WDIA radio station.

In 1984, I returned to Chicago, where I opened a studio near downtown, and founded BW Productions.  I shot stills for such clients as DuSable Museum, McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, Independence Bank of Chicago and others.  During this period, I participated in several traveling exhibitions including Black Jazz produced by DuSable Museum and the Eastman-Kodak Corporation; Black Aesthetic hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; and Two Schools produced by Kenkeleba Gallery in New York City. 

In 1988, I was commissioned to create a large in-depth exhibition for the Cook County Public Defender’s Office.  I documented the work of the Public Defender’s Office from the courtroom to Cook County jail.  This exhibit traveled to all the courthouses in Cook County, Illinois. 

In 1989, several of my images were included in the book Black Photographers 1940-1988:  An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography by Deborah Willis-Thomas. Other highlights of my photographic career included my participation in two exhibits of African-American erotica at the Ascension Gallery in Washington, D.C.  The two shows were: Afrodisa and Natural Beauty: the Aesthetics of the Black Nude. Prints from Afrodisa were later included in a show called Sexing Myths at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Many of my jazz photographs were exhibited in the first ever Jazz McDonald’s restaurant and at Graystone International Jazz Museum in Detroit.

Among the collections that include my photographs is the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a part of the New York Public Library; the Larry Hilton Collection in Trenton, New Jersey; the Dr. Leo Edwards Collection in San Antonio, Texas; and most recently, the Paul Jones Collection at the University Of Delaware. 

In 2004, some of my photographs were included in the book A Century of African American Art: The Paul R. Jones Collection, edited by Amalia K. Amaki and published by the University Museum, University of Delaware and Rutgers University Press.

From June 30, 2005, through Aug 14, 2005 I will have an exhibition of my jazz and music legend photographs on exhibit at the renowned ETA Theater on the Southside of Chicago…my photos will accompany the play " Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil."    

Since 1984, my career in video / film / television production has taken me from war torn Liberia in West Africa; to the Navajo Reservations of the Southwest; to the resettled Hmong people of Northern Michigan; to the temple of a voodoo priestess down in New Orleans.  My widely varied assignments included the production of industrial films for BP Amoco Oil Company and a feature film about kick boxing.

In the last few years, I assisted with the production of the Catch the Spirit, a weekly television program for the United Methodist Church.  I worked on several programs that aired on PBS television, including producing for Proudly We Serve:  The Men of the USS Mason for the United States Navy Memorial and the Destroyer Escort Historical Foundation; and as cameraman for Yanks in Ireland a documentary about American Soldiers in Ireland; The Life and Times of Harold Washington; and Marriage - Just a Piece of Paper. 

In addition, I directed Images of Life, Vision of Hope for United Methodist Communications.  I worked as director / cameraman for River 2001, a very innovative music video by artist Charles Fambro, and as cameraman for Crucifixion for the Lutheran Choir of Chicago. I am in the process of completing a documentary about a New Orleans voodoo queen. (We completed the film in 2007.)

Over the last 40 years my photographs have appeared in the Chicago Defender, Globe, the Commercial Appeal, Indigo and Jam Sessions newspapers.  My images have also appeared in People, Savoy Ebony and Jet magazines, Home Furnishings Daily, Women’s Wear Daily, and publications.   I have received several awards for my photographs including Best News Photo of 1972 from the National Newspaper Publisher’s Association, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

I still operate BW Productions, a small film and television production company and photography studio in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Bill passed away in 2008.