"Roma Rising" exhibition featuring portraits of Roma from Czech Republic to open in Kladno

On Thursday, 15 September at 17:00 the exhibition “Roma Rising” will open at the Sládečkovo Vlastivědné Muzeum (the Sládeček Museum of Local History) in the Czech town of Kladno and will remain on view until 27 November 2016. The exhibition features portraits of Roma from the Czech Republic who have managed to make it in mainstream society and honors their bravery and determination.

The exhibition was loaned to Kladno by the Brno-based Museum of Romani Culture. It is comprised of a selection of the works of American photographer Chad Evans Wyatt, whose images challenge the stereotypical view of Romani people as a “problem” that is promoted by the Czech media and society.

Instead of depicting Romani people as “asocial”, or emphasizing their difference, the civil, serene black and white portraits are full of respect for Romani people who belong to the Czech Republic’s growing, successful middle class and have achieved good results in their education and professions. Wyatt focused primarily on capturing the faces of Romani people not already known through the media.

The portrait photographer was born into a family of musicians and grew up in New York and Paris. Since 1976 he has worked in the Washington, D.C. area.

His professional career has involved producing portraits of personalities from the world of art, five Presidents of the United States, and countless figures in public office. Wyatt’s work is included in the music department of the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Between 1993-2000 he realized a project called “101 Artists in the Post-Revolution Czech Republic” and his book of photographs from the project won the Prague Book Fair award. A similar publication of his was released in 2005 about the Roma Rising project.