Work on Display - NO OPENING RECEPTION 

CLOSING RECEPTION: OCTOBER 12TH, 5:00-7:00 PM; Open to the Public, Free Admission.

 "Africans Within the Americas: Beautiful Faces of Colombia"

By Michael Bracey

Along with award winning writer/poet Ruth Goring and his Spanish interpreter Maria Vazquez, photographer Michael Bracey visited eight Afro-Colombian communities in Colombia, South America in February 2014.  From that trip, the photography essay titled Caras Lindas de Colombia (Beautiful Faces of Colombia), was created.

Caras Lindas de Colombia explores the daily lives of Afro-Colombians and is the latest chapter of an ongoing photography project he calls Africans Within the Americas.  The project began in 1998 and focuses on descendants of Africans living throughout North Central and South America. 

After traveling to ten different countries, he self-published a book of the same title in 2008.  When Colombia is mentioned, many U.S. folks think of coffee, drug traffickers, and violence.  Few of us picture people of African descent. But in absolute numbers Colombia’s Afro-descendant population is the third largest in the Western Hemisphere, following those of Brazil and the United States.

Michael Bracey

Michael Bracey lived in Hutchinson, Kansas from 1964 to 1979, during which his photography career began. He is currently residing in Maywood, Illinois. His work has been published in various magazines, newspapers, annual reports, and purchased by many private collectors worldwide. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Webster University, St. Louis, MO and a Master of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College in Chicago.