I aborted my first reading to return to the beginning so that I could read it aloud to my partner. Edition of 4 Signed and dated by photographer verso. Untitled (from the series In The Vale of Cashmere), 2010 Gelatin silver print, printed ca. Roma shows us not a overtly seedy, darkened or hyper-sexualized space, but instead a charged space of possibility populated by bodies that are engaged, vulnerable, languid and much else besides. It’s a dignified and quiet challenge to the undignified, clumsy and loud prejudices of mainstream America. In some ways, it is a tool against homophobia and against racism. In The Vale Of Cashmere bridges socio-cultural boundaries. These portraits gently dismantle the fears, the judgements and the make-believe of those outside of the space - fear and judgements that have fueled discrimination toward homosexual men for decades. And therein lies the importance of Roma’s book. It’s not a social milieu that fiercely polices against prying eyes, but rather a space at which outside eyes, and bodies, avoid. In hundreds of portraits and thumbnail images sequenced like movie-strips, we approach, encounter, pass or pause with the men who meet there. Thomas Roma’s new book In The Vale Of Cashmere takes the viewer on long and repeated walks through the foliage and dappled light.
