Art Photographer Reinterprets Chemehuevi Native Identity

The San Bernardino County Museum is pleased to present, Homecoming: Works by Cara Romero through Aug. 14, 2022. Romero is a contemporary fine art photographer and an enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe. She was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX, and now works out of her studio in New Mexico.

The exhibit embraces photography as Romero’s tool to resist Eurocentric narratives and as a means for opening audiences’ perspectives to the fascinating diversity of living Indigenous peoples. Romero’s identity informs her photography, a blend of fine art and editorial photography, shaped by years of study and a visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and lived experiences from a Native American female perspective.

Museum Director Melissa Russo said, “Cara Romero’s work provides a brilliant perspective on indigenous culture, the environment, justice, and modern society. As a female producing large scale works, she establishes a fascinating variation on the genre of epic imagery, utilizing a dramatic up tilt in many of her compositions, but incorporating an unexpected intimacy and internal complexity in her subjects. The museum is delighted to present this remarkable show of her work, and share her talent in San Bernardino County where she was raised.”

The San Bernardino County Museum is located at 2024 Orange Tree Lane, at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is $10 (adult), $8 (military or senior), $7 (student), and $5 (child ages 5 to 12). Children under five and Museum Association members are admitted free. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.sbcounty.gov/museum. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.