Cara Romero is a member of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, and was raised between the contrasting settings of the reservation in Mojave Desert, California and the urban sprawl of Houston, Texas. Romero’s identity informs her visceral approach to representing cultural memory, collective history, and lived experience from a female Native American perspective.

Romero is focused on researching historical and contemporary narratives of identity and heritage. By staging theatrical compositions infused with dramatic color, she takes on the role of storyteller, using contemporary photographic techniques to depict the modernity of Indigenous culture, illuminating Native worldviews alluding to the supernatural in everyday life.

The exhibition is divided into three sections—Native California, Imagining Indigenous Futures, and Native Woman.

LOU STOUMEN PRIZE

Cara Romero is the 7th recipient of the Lou Stoumen Prize in Photography. The Lou Stoumen Prize in Photography is awarded to a mid-career photographer whose work relates in spirit to Stoumen’s own humanistic approach to photography.

The museum has previously awarded the Lou Stoumen Prize six times. The first award went to Debbie Fleming Caffery in 1996. Following recipients include Kenro Izu (1998), James Nachtwey (2002), Gary Schneider (2006), Michael Subotzky (2009), and Fazel Sheikh (2016).