Omar Rafik
Omar has been a photographer for 30 years, turning his hobby into a part-time business in 2010 with weddings, fashion shows, and model photography. After covering FestAfrica, the largest African festival on the East Coast, he began focusing on African community events in the DMV area, including ceremonies for Nigerian, Sierra Leonian, Cameroonian, and Tanzanian groups.
His wife joined as videographer, and together they became a sought-after production company within the diaspora. Since 2012, they have traveled to Africa five times—three medical missions to Nigeria, one to Cameroon, and one to Tanzania—creating documentaries to support future missions and partnering with the African Women’s Cancer Awareness Association. Omar continues his work, with a break during the pandemic.
Omar expresses his passion for photography as a means of “freezing time,” focusing less on equipment and more on storytelling, capturing moments, people, and their dreams.