With her first major solo show underway, Native American photographer Cara Romero creates cinematic, evocative imagery showcasing modern Indigenous life.
Love. That’s what is at the heart of all of Chemehuevi fine art photographer Cara Romero’s work. Love for the people featured, love for the communities involved, and love for the medium of photogra - phy itself. And that love is evident across Panûpünüwügai (Living Light), her first major solo exhibition, which opened to great fanfare at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum earlier this year and will travel across the country through 2027. It includes some 60 pieces created over more than a decade that depict mod - ern Indigenous life. Far from static images, Romero’s work at once embodies realism and mysticism —telling stories, evok - ing emotions, and prompting rumination.
“This is everything—13 years of work, beginning at a point when I really found my voice as both an artist and a mature Native woman,” says Romero, who is of Chemehuevi and German-Irish descent and lives in Santa Fe with her fam - ily. “I came back to my art after taking some time off be - tween school and becoming a mother, and in 2012 I really recommitted to the idea of art as a survival skill and as part of a healing spiritual path not just for myself, but for Native peoples as a whole. I never thought it would take me this far, but the more I recommitted to it, the more it felt like the universe embraced this path for me. There have been so many moments along the way that have reaffirmed that this import - ant work is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Growing up, Romero split her time between the rural Chemehuevi Reservation in California’s Mojave Desert and the bustling metropolis of Houston. Even as a child, she rec - ognized the stark contrast in authentic Native representation between those two places. On the reservation, she was sur - rounded by her culture, whereas in the city, she noticed a lack of understanding about Indigenous communities altogether.
This biracial, bicultural upbringing very much informs not only her perspective but her photography, which dispels tired tropes and highlights the collision of contemporary and tra - ditional lifeways. For Romero’s current solo show, pieces are divided into thematic sections ranging from (Re)Imagining Americana, which remakes iconic pop culture images with an Indigenous twist, to Ancestral Futures, which reinforces the importance of bringing forth the knowledge of the past as we look ahead.
To drive home that point, a trio of Chemehuevi baskets that were handcrafted a century ago is traveling as part of her contemporary photography exhibition. “Both things can exist at the same time,” she says. “They’re not mutually exclusive, de - spite the tendency to try to separate the past from the present. These baskets have a little spirit that comes with them, and it really feels like our elders and ancestors are traveling with the show and watching over it.”
Such striking yet subtle juxtapositions are nearly constant throughout Romero’s photography, which eschews the didactic and instead asks questions of its audiences. “Cara lets people come into a conversation without feeling like there’s a right or wrong answer,” says Jami Powell (Osage), who serves as the Hood Museum’s firstever curator of Indigenous art. “We don’t have to have an answer; instead, we need to learn to be comfortable sitting with the ambiguity. We have to be open in dialogue —a dialogue that everyone needs to participate in. It’s human to disagree, and it’s human to make light of difficult issues; I think Indigenous communities are just particularly great at it because of our culture, our humor, and our histories.”
Romero and Powell have been collaborating on the exhibition for the past five years. The fact that they as two relatively young Native women brought this show to life —when, until very recently, female Indigenous artists’ works have largely been recognized only after their deaths —is not lost on them. That empowerment of strong Indigenous women is omnipresent in Romero’s photography, such as in her popular First American Girls portrait series (including two new ones that feature Indigenous Dartmouth students and were revealed at the exhibition opening).
“I come from a community of really strong women, so women have always taken a central role in my work,” she says. “This is about stating the truth about how we feel about ourselves and countering ideas about our bodies. It’s about showcasing our strength and the medicine we carry as life-givers. It’s the exact opposite of all the lowbrow art of Native women out there that feeds into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. If people don’t think that we’re real humans, we disappear. All of the women in my photography have agency over how they appear in these photos. We are not only active participants; we’re the protagonists.” Fittingly, most of the artworks that showcase individual women are named for those women to humanize them beyond simply subject matter.
As much as Romero’s work highlights complex topics like the MMIW crisis and environmental racism, it also feels playful. That’s entirely by design, to reflect the full range of Indigenous life. “We don’t often get to see ourselves like this, especially in places like museums,” says Powell, gesturing to the roller derby–inspired artwork Starlight, Starbright. “So yes, there are epidemics of violence against our communities, but through it all, we are able to be strong and powerful, and we can laugh and joke and create and roller skate. Showing all of that is so important.”
Romero never loses sight of her main audience —Native communities, especially youth —yet she understands the important impact her work has on non-Native viewers. “I have a deep belief that as Indigenous artists, we’re beholden to our community,” she says. “We’re not just working from ego. It has to resonate with you. It has to make you proud. It has to be in service to community. But I think everybody benefits from this authenticity, because it asks people to check their preconceived notions and helps those stereotypes about us fall away.”
Cara Romero’s solo exhibition Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) is on view through August 10, 2025, at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire. Find more information at hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu; visit the artist at cararomero.com.
