Dana Romanoff's background in cultural studies is evident in her work. Her recent series, "Wife of the God," addresses a controversial religious practice among the Ewe people in West Africa. Families suffering misfortune bring their young girls to traditional shrines to "marry the god" in order to reconcile for crimes committed by ancestors. The women are called "Fiashidi," which means "wife of the god." The shrine serves as a moral and educational institution in the town that helps prevent premarital sex and crime. This PRC exhibition represents one of the first showings of this significant series.
Romanoff holds a BA from University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) and earned her MA in Photojournalism from Ohio University (Athens, OH) in 2004. Romanoff is currently on assignment for National Geographic Magazine photographing the women left behind in a Mexican town where 80% of the men have migrated to the U.S. for work. A staff photographer at The Free Lance-Star newspaper, this year she was selected as a finalist for Magnum's Inge Morath Award, nominated for Visa Pour L'image Young Photographer Award, and won in the Atlanta Photojournalism Awards and Society for News and Design.
In this image, Emilia sits outside her father's pharmacy in the center of town. She is heartbroken because her father prohibited her to see her boyfriend. Emilia's father is a part of the kin that established the Troxovi (war god) shrine of the traditional religion of the Ewe people and is married to a fiashidi, or "wife of the god". A fiashidi can be any age and is replaced by a family member when she dies.
John P. Jacob became involved with the PRC when a review of his photography appeared in a 1981 issue of VIEWS: A New England Journal of Photography. During this time, Jacob was traveling and exchanging artwork with photographers from Eastern Europe. He was later invited to curate an exhibition by Polish photographer Anna Bohdziewicz at the PRC and was a juror for the PRC's grant sponsorship program in 1987.
Several years later, while working towards his MA in Art History at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), Jacob was hired as the PRC's Director of Exhibitions in 1992 and then promoted to Executive Director, a position he held until December 2000. During his tenure at the PRC, the board was re-organized, the logo re-designed, the mission statement rewritten, several large grants secured, the Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Awards revived, and the gallery's debt paid off.
After leaving the PRC, Jacob moved to Maine and developed Photocurator.org, an online resource for photography curators. In 2003, he accepted a position as Director of the Inge Morath Foundation (New York, NY). He continues to curate and write for a wide variety of independent projects in the US and abroad.
