Cara Romero
Oil Boom, 2015
archival pigment print
32 x 32 inches (framed)
AP 1 of 2, in an edition of 10
opening bid: $7,000
buy it now: $10,000
Oil Boom is a part of a larger series of Romero's underwater photographs, Water Memories, that explore water’s capacity to hold memory, trauma, and life. Romero writes: "Water Memories are dreamscapes dealing with Native American relationships to water, the forces of man and of Mother Nature. They are individual explorations of space, memory, and diverse Indigenous narratives that are both terrifying and peaceful." The central figure in the image—fellow artist Cannupa Hanska Luger—floats with arms outstretched, as if unexpectedly dropped into and tasked with navigating this environment. This is the last available print of this image.
Cara Romero (b. 1977, Inglewood, CA) is an enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe and was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX. 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.
