As a child, Jafa assembled binders full of found images in collections he called "the books." He also grew up watching shows like I Spy, and science fiction programs.[3]
The science fiction programs Jafa watched as a child has informed his artistic practice as an adult, as seen in his self portrait "LeRage" (2017). His work is also inspired by his interest in jazz musician Miles Davis.[3]
His seven-minute video essay Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami,[9] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the High Museum of Art.[1][10] Set to Kanye West's song "Ultralight Beam", the work consists of a series of found images and video clips depicting a range of Black American experiences throughout history which establishes that the black experience is not monolithic, every experience is unique. Among many other clips exploring African American life and resiliency, the video essay juxtaposes recordings of police violence and footage from the Civil Rights Movement with clips of Black artistry, pop culture, celebration, and creativity.[11][12] Jafa himself has connected the ethos of the work with his Catholic roots and Gian Lorenzo Bernini's "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa".[2] On Friday, June 26, 2020, 13 museums in 7 countries pledged, with Jafa's blessing, to stream the work for free on their respective websites for 48 hours.[13]
Jafa co-founded TNEG along with Malik Hassan Sayeed, a "motion picture studio whose goal is to create a black cinema as culturally, socially, and economically central to the 21st century as was black music to the 20th century".[17] TNEG has produced a number of works such as Dreams Are Colder Than Death and the music video for Jay-Z's song "4:44".[18]
In 2018, Jafa released the approximately forty-minute-long video essay entitled The White Album, which uses found video clips from CCTV, cell phones, documentaries, and more to explore whiteness and racism in the United States of America.[19][20][21][22] He was awarded the Golden Lion for best artist at the 2019 Venice Biennale for The White Album.[23]
As of 2021, the artists's work is represented by Gladstone Gallery. He is currently[when?] working on a project that is a feature film that focuses on how black music has greatly influenced American culture.
In 2023, Jafa was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for his 2022 exhibition "Live Evil" at LUMA Arles in Arles, France. His work was featured alongside fellow Prize nominees Bieke Depoorter, Samuel Fosso, and Frida Orupabo at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, which opened in March 2023.[25][26]
While working on a film with Charles Burnett in 1980, Jafa met the director Julie Dash. Dash and Jafa married in 1983 and had a daughter, N'Zinga in 1984.[27] The couple later separated, after collaborating on the film Daughters of the Dust.[27][28]
