“The Visitation”

Show dates: July 16 – August 11

Artist Reception: Saturday, August 3, 4-8 p.m.

Chroma Fine Art Gallery is excited to be the first venue to present “The Visitation,” a new series by acclaimed documentary photographer Tamara Reynolds. The exhibition runs from July 16 – August 11. An artist reception will be held on Saturday, August 3 from 4–8pm.

Reynolds brings an unflinching eye to consider what it means to be human, focusing on the lives of those who are often unseen. Her photographs “convey a sense of urgency…and open up new paths towards understanding the world,” writes Sarah Hermanson Meister, a curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s photography department.

In “The Visitation” Reynolds turns her attention to the Melungeon, mixed-race Americans whose lineage stems from a range of ethnicities including Africans, Native Americans, Europeans, Moors, Portuguese, Turks, and Jews. With descendants who predated slavery, Melungeon family lines are among the oldest in the country. There is no agreement on the etymology of “Melungeon,” which has become a catch-all phrase for some 200 mixed-raced communities in the southern and eastern US. Since they were historically ostracized by whites, the Melungeon formed secluded communities in hard-to- access lands. Reynolds focuses her camera lens on one such place: Newman’s Ridge in Tennessee. She documents beauty and resilience despite systemic hardship, showing the perseverance of individuals, the community, and the natural- and built- environments that surround and sustain this Melungeon community.

In her application for the Guggenheim Fellowship which funded this photography project, Reynolds’ aim is to inspire “viewers to reflect on the very real amalgamation of the people that make up our country.” She recognizes the complexity embedded in American history and identity, and encourages us to reconsider “a people descended from those who belonged but were never welcome.”