Untitled 1991

Curator: Looking at this Thomas Roma photograph, it immediately strikes me as incredibly hopeful. There's such brightness, even in the grayscale, and an almost dreamlike quality to the figures in their white robes. Editor: And that’s key to its historical resonance, too. Thomas Roma's "Untitled" photograph from 1991 offers us a poignant look inside a Black church community. His long-term engagement with such communities in Brooklyn provides rich material to analyze social identity and resilience. Curator: I can see that, for sure. It’s clearly documenting a sacred, joyous occasion. The light seems to focus especially on the faces of the participants—radiant and present, or tender like the woman with a child. It pulls me into this scene. Editor: Absolutely, and by using black and white film, Roma references a longer history of documentary photography, particularly images depicting African American life, creating an intertextual dialogue about representation. Thinking about artists like Gordon Parks, for example... how photography serves to chronicle experience, and the politics inherent in simply showing up and seeing. Curator: It makes me consider ritual and repetition in this context, the continuation of tradition even in the face of struggle. The robes, the communal gathering, the baby symbolizing the future... they all become really charged with meaning. Does anyone know specifically the nature of the religious order being depicted, a branch or denomination? Editor: What stands out for me is less what it literally depicts, and more how it encapsulates community, the simple, powerful bond of human connection through faith and love. Art can bring forth this intangible connection even after the depicted events are long over. Curator: Precisely. Photography in Roma’s approach isn't only about capturing an image, but about preserving and giving witness to community experience as resistance to being erased, to make them ever-present with this photograph. Editor: Thinking of its aesthetic presence overall, it resonates within my imagination. Thanks to its emotional openness it somehow becomes its own sacred and powerful object, even more than a simple "snapshot" of life from back in 1991. Curator: Indeed. Viewing it through lenses of history and lived experience invites a deeper reflection on themes of faith, identity, and representation, broadening our perspectives beyond what's visibly present. Thank you for sharing these profound and hopeful images and insight!