Charles Fre´ger

All across the Americas, from the 16th century onwards, enslaved Africans escaped their captors and established their own communities or joined with indigenous peoples to forge new identities. Cimarron, borrowing a Spanish-American term for these fugitive slaves, is a new series of photographic portraits of their descendants by acclaimed photographer Charles Fre´ger. From Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean islands, Central America, and as far as the southern United States, elaborate masquerades are staged that celebrate and keep alive the history and memory of African slaves and their creole or mixed-race descendants. Unique photographs of people in dynamic costumes from remote regions of the world, supplemented with texts providing ethnographic and historical context, will enthrall followers of social history, ethnic folklore, and unusual fashion experimentation.