CARIBBEAN QUEENS

Trinidad-born, Brooklyn-raised Renluka Maharaj is a raconteuse, anthropologist, photographer, historian, and feminist rolled into one. She embellishes ‘found’ black-and-white photographs of Indians living in colonial-era Trinidad, as well as her own haunting portraits, with digital and acrylic art… The intent? To infuse life into the nameless, disenfranchised, and voiceless men and women who had been imprisoned, as it were, under the colonial gaze. And to do this, Renluka had to go back to her own roots.

A trained photographer, Renluka’s journey