Hidden
Life with California's Roma Families
by Cristina Salvador Klenz
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Pub Date Apr 05 2022 | Archive Date Apr 14 2022
Brown Paper Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
Fifty-five years after famed photographer Josef Koudelka published his seminal work, Gypsies, documenting European Roma families, photojournalist Cristina Salvador Klenz brings us a similar collection of rare, intimate black-and-white images—this time featuring the Roma families of California.
By taking us behind the scenes of an ethnic minority largely unknown and yet routinely reduced to stereotypes by mainstream America, Klenz captures the celebrations, social structures, and struggles of a culture that has survived centuries of discrimination and persecution.
Hidden: Life with California’s Roma Families is the first photography book to feature Romani Americans. Beginning in 1990, Klenz spent several years following a number of families belonging to various “nations” of Roma and documenting their lives on 35mm, black-and-white film. With a foreword by Ian Hancock, widely considered the world’s preeminent Romani scholar, Hidden provides historical as well as social context for the book’s 100 photographs. It was lavishly printed in duotone by Italian printer Editoriale Bortolazzi-Stei (EBS).
Although the Roma are still widely known in English by the exonym “Gypsies,” this book comes amidst a global movement away from the word, which is increasingly considered an offensive pejorative.
Since their exodus from India more than a thousand years ago, the Roma have migrated all over the globe. Klenz’s work features various nations, including the Kalderash and Machvaya, whose ancestors were kept as slaves in Eastern Europe for 500 years; the Xoraxay, whose people 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 slavery and therefore had lost the Romani language entirely by the time they encountered Klenz.
Given their widely divergent paths to America, many Romani-American nations today have little social contact with each other, but the groups have been brought together in this set of photographs so that readers may gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for Romani-American history, life, family, and tradition.
A Note From the Publisher
Contributor: Wendy Thomas Russell
Advance Praise
“Some of the best photographs documenting the Roma community I have ever seen. Each photo brings you into their lives and intimate moments and tells a complete story of its own. Incredible work rarely seen in contemporary photography these days. I look forward to holding this gorgeous book in my hands.”
— Jamie Johnson, author of Growing Up Travelling
“How little we know about one another, until we dare to take a closer look. Every photograph in this powerful collection offers an intimate and emotional window into the hidden culture of the American Romani people. Klenz’ lens shields us from nothing, stripping away the secrecy to expose the beauty and wonder that has been concealed for too long.”
— Julie Cantrell, author of Into the Free.
"Cristina Salvador Klenz's book is a striking example of visual storytelling. It captured my heart from the very first image, lending me entry into an intimate world of the universal human experience, filled with love, sadness, and hope."
— Oksana Marafioti, author of American Gypsy: A Memoir
“Klenz’s sensitivity and skills as a professional photojournalist resulted in intimate photographs documenting the community’s daily life; milestones including birth, death, marriage; child-rearing; and extreme poverty set in the suburbs. Her subjects did not flinch from allowing her to see and photograph their most private moments. … Klenz’s work is unique and will become a photojournalism classic.”
— Ken Kobre, author of Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach
"This small book actually is a very big one, because it shows us the life of American Roma from California at the beginning of 1990-s. The photographs are beautifully arranged and show the everyday life, the celebrations, religious moments and the culture of Kalderash Roma in the USA from inside. The author who had the possibility to live together with the Roma families had learned their culture and showed it through the pictures. The book is important because it brings new knowledge about the life of American Kalderash Roma."
— Dr. Hristo Kyuchukov, founder of the International Journal of Romani Language and Culture
Marketing Plan
Southern California book tour (including stops in Orange County, Los Angeles and Long Beach), robust print and digital media campaigns, blog tour, Goodreads Giveaway, social media ad campaign.
Southern California book tour (including stops in Orange County, Los Angeles and Long Beach), robust print and digital media campaigns, blog tour, Goodreads Giveaway, social media ad campaign.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781941932186 |
| PRICE | $49.99 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
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