In “赫莫萨美术摄影师 卡拉罗梅洛 这是一个令人信服的案例 洛杉矶 还是个圣地吗. The 2021 black-and-white photograph features Romero’s daughter standing in the waves of the Pacific dressed as Ocean Woman, 部分 Chemehuevi 创世故事.
“In pre-colonial times [洛杉矶] was an area of creation,罗梅罗现在说, 这是许多土著部落的圣地. We wanted to take portraits in those places that were still intact in L.A.”
这件作品是 Tongvaland, a COVID-era exhibit of Native American works displayed on 洛杉矶的一 广告牌. While “赫莫萨” well represents a style that is often associated with Romero—a mix of traditional and contemporary imagery—her career has spanned well beyond 广告牌. Her pieces have found homes in collections of major museums around the globe, including the Smithsonian National 博物馆 of the American 印度n, National 博物馆 of World Cultures in the Netherlands, 还有古根海姆博物馆.
“我以一种更小的方式工作,罗梅罗说, noting that she started out showing her pieces at 印度n markets. “I never imagined I would have work in the Met 和 MoMA 和 克罗克 和 Autry 诸如此类.”
Romero’s pieces also appear in many other museums around the Golden State, including the 洛杉矶县艺术博物馆, 亨廷顿，和 棕榈泉艺术博物馆. 在2024年，她的“三姐妹”将成为其中的一部分 未来的想象:本土艺术，时尚，科技 美国西部奥特里博物馆(Autry 博物馆 of American West. 7, 2024–June 21, 2026), an exhibition showcasing 50 futuristic works by Indigenous artists.
The appeal, no doubt, comes from her striking, colorful imagination. 采取“天顶,” which depicts an astronaut floating in space as cobs of corn orbit around him. “We remember that while life and culture is always changing,罗梅罗在她的网站上写下了这篇文章, “有些东西是永远不变的.”
从人类学家到艺术家
That dual reality is something Romero has known all her life. 出生在英格尔伍德城外洛杉矶市中心, Romero grew up in two worlds after her parents’ divorce, splitting her time between her mom’s family in Houston and her dad’s family on the Chemehuevi预订-位于圣贝纳迪诺县的东部边缘, 靠近哈瓦苏湖和亚利桑那州边界.
在休斯顿大学, 罗梅罗最初主修文化人类学, but then took an elective class in photography and found her calling. “I was interested in telling contemporary Native stories but hadn’t really been exposed to formal photography until I stumbled into the class,她说。. “It was an instant love—I understood that photography was a more powerful pathway for me to visually communicate contemporary indigenous life and issues.”
在她继续学习和迅速发展的事业中, she found a lot of support when visiting the reservation. “The cultural arts are something that we practice in community, and we rely upon each other intergenerationally for those arts,她说。. “While photography was an unusual thing to pursue, that intergenerational support stayed true. 我会回家制作或分享照片, and I look back and realize I would never have had the courage to pursue it unless the elders had encouraged me.”
Chemehuevi生活
今天，罗梅罗仍然在分配时间, 和她的家人(包括丈夫Diego Romero)住在一起, a Cochiti Pueblo artist) in both Santa Fe and on the Chemehuevi预订—which, 她说, 从她年轻时起就没有什么变化吗. “它非常以家庭为导向, 非常面向社区, meaning life is centered around the elders 和 community,她说。. “这里非常乡村.”
The reservation is on the banks of the Colorado River and Lake Havasu, and also a short drive from 约书亚树国家公园 和 莫哈韦国家保护区. “人们认为这个地区很贫瘠, 但它是世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一, 有着丰富的土著历史,她说。. “We breathe clean air, drink clean water, we fish, we hike, and swim a lot on the Colorado River. There’s no fast food or movie theaters, or anything like that. We protect our environment, so our natural world is very intact. And we’re very reliant on each other—for eating, for socialization, and happiness.”
Back in 洛杉矶, Romero often shifts into a different mode: “I like to reconnect with family in 雷东多海滩, and I find myself more of a tourist rather than someone who is from there. bbin游戏官网去 拉布雷亚沥青坑, LACMA, 锤子. 我等不及要去 卢卡斯博物馆, which will be about storytelling 和 narrative arts. I’m going to have piece in their collection, so I’m excited about that.” (Ed. note: 卢卡斯博物馆 of Narrative Arts is expected to open in 2025.)
天时地利人和
Romero readily admits she’s amazed at the reach her work has found. “I am 46 and grew up without seeing Native Americans portrayed accurately in culture or academia,她指出. “I was pursuing it out of love—love of my community—and never expected there to be such an awakening in American institutions, to try to reckon with the dark history of exclusion and erasure of Native Americans as part of American art and history.”
In recent years, however, 她说 she has seen a shift. “那么多美国机构——博物馆, schools and universities—seem to be trying to address the last 100 years of purposeful exclusion,她说。. “So I have been surprised to be in the right place at the right time. 虽然我的声音很小，但它确实能带来改变.”
