Roma Rising: portrait of a community
While shooting portraits for what was to become an award-winning book -
"101: Artists in the Post-Revolution Czech Republic" - the
American photographer Chad Evans Wyatt became interested in bringing a
very different kind of project to light. This autumn, he is set to publish
"Roma Rising," a collection of portraits of over 100 Czech Romani
people "of great intelligence, integrity and accomplishment."
The American photographer Chad Evans Wyatt has worked as a portrait
photographer in the Washington, DC area for nearly three decades. Born of
musician parents, and growing up in New York and Paris, his career began,
and continues substantially, in the portrayal of people in the arts. His
work is included in the collections of the music divisions of the
Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art, both in
Washington, DC. Among his other accomplishments, he has photographed five
U.S. presidents.
Chad Evans Wyatt first came to Prague in 1993. His wife and her mother are
of Czech descent: they were searching for long silent relatives on the
other side of the Iron Curtain. On the advice of the Czech-born writer
Arnost Lustig, upon arrival, Mr Wyatt immediately set about portraying a
flourishing artistic community here still largely unknown to the West. It
was while shooting portraits for what was to become an award-winning book
- "101: Artists in the Post-Revolution Czech Republic" - that
Chad Evans Wyatt became interested in bringing a very different kind of
project to light: this year, he is set to publish "Roma Rising,"
a collection of portraits of over 100 Czech Romani people "of great
intelligence, integrity and accomplishment."
"My friend Arnost Lustig suggested that I do the same thing in Prague
that I do in Washington, that is to say, photograph artists and musicians,
writers...This was 1993, and although the Velvet Revolution already was
four years in the past, you could still feel the energy... it was a time
of great possibility and it was just very exciting to be here. And I said,
'Gosh, you know, why not just photograph artists of the Czech Republic -
after the revolution? Probably they are going to do something important,
and I would have a project which shows who they are. I became very
methodical. I looked for artists from every discipline - from music,
literature, architecture... sculpture, dance - everything."
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"I included three generations. People who had made the larger part
of their careers before the revolution; a bridge generation, who'd started
before, but were coming into fullest flower; and unknowns - young people
who many people didn't know. One of them, [actress] Ana Geislerova, was
not unknown, but she was very, very young at the time - eighteen years
old. And there were quite a few others in that group who nobody knew, but
now they do."
"I am very pleased to say that, eight years after starting the
project, yes, indeed, it became a book; and it was named the best thematic
photo book at the Prague Book Fair in 2001. So, I was very pleased, of
course, yes"
It was while shooting portraits for what was to become that award-winning
book -- "101: Artists in the Post-Revolution Czech Republic" --
that Mr Wyatt became interested in doing a portrait of the emerging Czech
Romani, or "Gypsy", middle class: "Roma Rising/Romske
Obrozeni" is a collection of portraits of over one hundred Roma -
among them: doctors, lawyers, activists, teachers, and small business
people.
"During the time that I was photographing artists... I read about a
gentleman who said 'the Roma are inferior because they have smaller
brains.' And I said, 'Wait a minute -- that is such an absurd statement'.
You know, I just noticed it. Then, I photographed some Roma as part of the
artists series and they said, 'You know, there is a middle class - all you
see in the press is just poverty, sorrow, failure, hopelessness -- and
there really is another story'."
One of the artists profiled in Mr Wyatt's "101 Artists" series,
Veruska Gondolanova, had remarked that the Czech media, in her opinion,
did not seek out the whole of the Roma community, systematically
overlooking people of great intelligence, integrity, and accomplishment.
Months later, Mr Wyatt read of a pending lawsuit against a restaurant for
discrimination. It was launched by Monika Horakova, then a Member of
Parliament and the only Romani MP in office. She had been refused service
on the basis of her skin colour. It was at that time that photographer
Chad Evans Wyatt's idea -- to profile a Roma professional class -- came
together.
"I was very fortunate to meet former deputy Monika Horakova and she
sent me to Brno to photograph people she knows - it was her district - she
gave me a list of people...Anyway, the point is that I started at a very
high level, ad it was very inspiring because it made me think that my idea
was correct. And I asked these people, who were very informed, 'Okay, I've
photographed you, now can you give me some other suggestions, of other
people' - so what's very important to say ... is that the project is
'inner informed' - that is to say, the Romani community informed me who to
photograph."
There was another, and more immediately personal reason, why Chad Evans
Wyatt began to work on this new project, which was to be called "Roma
Rising".
"Thirdly, as the son of a black man and a white woman, I'd had - even
though I was an extremely young boy -- I'd had experience with the civil
rights era in the U.S. During that time I witnessed doctors, lawyers,
other kinds of distinguished professionals, come to our apartment and plan
what to do next for the civil rights era to come. So, to me, a black
professional was obvious, you know. Okay, so, how does that mix with
'smaller brain sizes,' you know? It's a foolish thing to say. But people
like to believe it. Why? Because it confirms the stereotypes that they
hold. It makes it easy."
Monika Pokutova, a 28-year-old Roma woman, studied biology and chemistry
at university, but now works as an Account Manager for a leading public
relations firm in Prague. She says she was pleased to take part in the
"Roma Rising" project, which portrays Romani people from all
professional walks of life.
"Originally I am a teacher, but now I work in another field of
business. I think people should see - I like the idea that there will be
Roma people with different professions. Usually what I can see are 'Roma
professionals' - like, professionals in the Roma field - but not
professions in ... normal jobs. So I liked the idea; it was a little bit
different, that there would be different people presented to the media and
the wider public: I think this is what we need."
RP: You said earlier, also, that you are a little bit tired of being a
sort of example? Or that people seek you out?
"No, I wouldn't say I'm tired of being an example: I'm tired of
proving - always proving to somebody - that I'm not dirty, I'm not
stealing and that I'm a normal person, I'm a human being, and it doesn't
mean that if I'm Roma, this is something wrong, something bad. So this is
something I am tired of, and I have to say, I have to prove it all the
time."
In hopes of starting a conversation," Chad Evans Wyatt decided he
would photograph people "who were part of this middle class and
professional class, and say, 'If your stereotype about the Roma is
correct, then who are these 100 people I photographed?' How do you explain
them? And I photographed that many in order to push aside the argument
that, well, I found two or three special people but the rest of them are
terrible."
Vladimir Cervenak grew up in Vlasim, a small town about 60 kilometres
outside of Prague: "I am Gypsy - I am Gypsy. It was my dream to study
medicine and now I'm studying in Prague at the faculty of medicine. I think
it's necessary to show the majority people that I am Roma and that I am not
bad, like the others think."
"Many people will see the photographs as extremely simple: that's
intentional," says Mr Wyatt. "I wanted them to be extremely
simple, direct, respectful of the person in the photograph, and not [full
of] great big emotion. In other words, if you want to look at this person,
you have to think about this person."
For more information, please go to www.romarising.com. The poject Roma
Rising will be exhibited in Czech Centres throuhgout Europe this year and
at the Czech embassy in Washington, DC this autumn. Select photographs
from the series are travelling now internationally as part of a group show
and are currently in Slovenia. It will be available in book form later this
year.
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