Opening Reception for "Hidden: Life with Californias Roma Families" featuring the photography of Cristina Salvador Klenz
Thursday, August 17 at 6:00 pm
Opening remarks by Dr. Ian Hancock, OBE
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LOS ANGELES, CA — The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA is proud to present Hidden: Life with California's Roma Families by acclaimed photographer Cristina Salvador Klenz, on view beginning Thursday, August 17, and continuing through Saturday, October 14, 2023. Opening remarks will be given by Dr. Ian Hancock, OBE, former Representative of the Romani people to the United Nations and widely considered the world’s preeminent Romani scholar.
Cristina Salvador Klenz brings a collection of rare, intimate photographs featuring the Roma families living along the West Coast. The exhibition features the artist's nearly 30-year documentation of Roma lives — captured on black-and-white, 35mm film.
Works exhibited in Hidden are featured in the artist's book of the same name, which won first place in the Documentary Book category of the 2022 International Photography Awards. By taking us behind the scenes of an ethnic minority largely unknown and yet routinely reduced to stereotypes, Salvador Klenz captures the celebrations, social structures, and struggles of the culture that has survived centuries of discrimination and persecution.
Since their exodus from India more than a thousand years ago, the Roma have migrated all over the globe. Cristina Salvador Klenz’s work — the first of its kind — features various nations of Roma in America, including the Kalderash and Machvaya, whose ancestors were enslaved in Eastern Europe for 500 years; the Xoraxay, who first arrived in California after extended stays in Chile; the Mihais, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia; and the Ludar, who were forbidden from speaking their native tongue during enslavement and therefore had lost the Romani language by the time they encountered Salvador Klenz.
Photojournalist Cristina Salvador Klenz has worked for various news publications in New York and California. She was part of the team of photographers from Press-Telegram named as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in 1995.
Born in Portugal, she currently lives and works in California. Her documentary photography on Roma culture has been published worldwide and is part of the Romani Archives & Documentation Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Ian Hancock, OBE served as the Representative of the Romani people to the United Nations and was appointed to the Holocaust Memorial Council by former President Clinton. He is a member of the International Romani Parliament and was awarded Norway's Rafto Foundation Prize for Human Rights. He is the founder of the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at The University of Texas at Austin. He publishes and lectures widely on Romani civil and human rights, and on the fate of the Romani victims of the Holocaust.
In 2019, he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
A limited number of signed, first-edition copies of Hidden will be available for purchase at the Luckman Gallery. Printed in San Giovanni Lupatoto, Italy, by Editoriale Bortolazzi Stei, on Lecta's GardaPremium Natural, a coated woodfree silk grade paper.
Published by Brown Paper Press
Hardcover, 144 pages, 12x1x10 inches
Foreword by Dr. Ian Hancock, OBE
During the exhibition, gallery hours will be:
Tuesdays through Fridays: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Saturdays: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
+1 hour prior to all Luckman Theatre presentations
Admission to the Luckman Gallery is free of charge
ABOUT THE LUCKMAN: The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA presents cutting-edge professional music, dance, theatre, and visual arts from around the world. Located 5 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, the Luckman is home to three unique spaces: the Luckman Theatre with a capacity of nearly 1,200, the Intimate Theatre with modular seating of up to 300, and the 3,600 square-foot Luckman Gallery.