Miraim Romais at Center (the Santa Fe Center for Photography) in New Mexico.
Photo by Marq Sutherland, 2006

Miriam Romais is a New York based freelance photographer and curator. Her dual nationality (U.S.­–Brazil) and fluency in both Portuguese and English has given her an insight into the two cultures, and become an important part of her artistic and socio-documentary explorations.

Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad. These include the Museum of the City of New York, El Museo del Barrio and the Association of Hispanic Arts (NYC); the Smithsonian Institution (DC); the Field Museum (IL); the American Labor Museum (NJ); Society for Contemporary Photography (MO); the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and the University of California-Berkeley (CA); Southern Light Gallery (TX); Light Work (NY); South Florida Art Center (FL); Photographic Resource Center (MA); the National Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague, Czech Republic; and the Severoceske Museum, Liberec, Northern Bohemia.

Her work is part of the book, video and HBO project, Americanos: Latino Life in the United States (Little Brown & Co, 1999). Romais has been published in the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Guide to Motorcycling Excellence: Skills, Knowledge and Strategies for Riding Right (Whitehorse Press, 2005).

Other accomplishments include a Puffin Foundation grant (1999); a residency at Light Work (1997) and the Photographic Resource Center (1993); two grants from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (1994, 1995); and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rutgers University/MGSA, NJ (1990). Romais curated many exhibitions, most notably the traveling exhibition Fire Without Gold: Works by Photographers of Color (1990–1996), featuring Dawoud Bey, Albert Chong, Carrie Mae Weems, Eli Reed and other established artists. It traveled from Rutgers to the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Photographic Resource Center, and Yankee Stadium Subway Station as part of the MTA/Arts for Transit program.

As a panelist/reviewer, she has served with FotoFest in Houston; the Society for Photographic Education; PhotoLucida; the Santa Fe Center for Photography in NM; the Center for Photography in Woodstock (where she also serves on the Board of Advisors); the New York Foundation for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

An avid motorcyclist since 1987, Romais became a Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor in 1994 to help riders gain the knowledge and confidence needed to ride safely, www.msf-usa.org. She helped develop the Fairleigh Dickinson University Motorcycle Program two years later. She became a RiderCoach Trainer in 2003, and served as FDU’s Director of RiderCoach Training and Development until 2007. Today she well as a ScooterCoach trainer for the MSF.

Romais is the Executive Director and Editor for En Foco, www.enfoco.org, a national non-profit photography organization that supports photographers of Latino/a, African, Asian and Native American heritage through publications and exhibitions.