The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape

Mark Chester’s powerful photographs create a visual archive that celebrates the broad diversity of Massachusetts’ citizens, who hail from most of the 195 countries and territories around the globe. Chester’s portraits of new Americans tell the story of who they are and how they have transformed the culture of the Bay State. They show the vast cultural resources and rich ethnic heritage of the Bay State’s 351 towns and cities. 

The project, which received a 2021 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant from the Brookline Commission for the Arts, supports the mission of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition. Exhibition companion books are available in the Minuteman Library Network. For more information, please see markchesterphotography.com.

Mark Chester has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in New York City. His work appears in the permanent collections of museums across the country, as well as publications such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, and Cape Cod Magazine. Chester contributes the monthly column “See What I Mean?” to the Enterprise newspaper group, covering upper Cape Cod.

---