Romero was influenced by the photography of
Edward Curtis early in her career. Later, she felt that her initial approach was not genuine to her own experience and began to experiment with different techniques and settings for her photographs. also describes how her photography is "non-realist photography" and "prioritizes storytelling and imagination." Romero captured
Water Memory in 2015. Cara Romero describes her photo
Water Memory by saying, "Visually, the photograph was strong, because it could be so many things" "It draws out that universal thread of the Great Flood. But I'm also from a tribe that was flooded out of ancestral lands—the Army Corps of Engineers actually forcefully dragged people out of their homes to create
Lake Havasu. The oral histories tell of how there were already inches of water in people's homes before they were made to leave. Now Lake Havasu feels haunted—there are homes and floodplains below—and when I submerge myself there, I feel all that water memory." She also explains that
Water Memory was such a turning point in her photography career by saying "It brought outcomes I never imagined possible, like the Smithsonian collecting my work." "After that, my art became an examination of things that were important to me—things that scared me but that I knew to be true. I started working with female figures. I wanted to break through the exploitative white-male lens that had dominated Native American photography for over a hundred years." Cara Romero's photograph
Water Memory is printed with archival pigment print and the whole
Water Memories series is also printed in archival pigment print. The
Bristol Post quoted her series,
Water Memories, as "breathtaking," and that it "exposes the fragile and essential relationships that exist between people, water and life."
Water Memories was shown in 2016 at the exhibition, "STILL," held at the Rainmaker Gallery in
Bristol. Romero's powerful female portraits were featured prominently in a spring 2017 exhibition 'We Are Native Women' at Rainmaker Gallery, celebrating the strength and diversity of Native American women on the 400th anniversary of the death of Pocahontas. Her work was also presented at a conference 'Pocahontas and After' at the
British Library,
London in March 2017. In the 2017 show, "Broken Boxes," held at form & concept gallery in
Santa Fe, Romero's photograph,
TV Indians, was described by the
Albuquerque Journal as her "highest production project yet." The photo juxtaposes
Puebloans with media depictions of Native Americans. In October 2018 Romero's photographs were exhibited by Rainmaker Gallery in the international exhibition 'Life Blood' as part of the Bloomsbury Festival and The Native Spirit Film Festival, London. In 2020, Romero was one of ten recipients of the
NDN Collective's Radical Imagination Artist Grants to install billboards and public displays of her photographs in the Los Angeles area. Romero has also won several
awards including ribbons at major art markets. Romero has also been featured at the Four Winds Gallery in
Pittsburgh, the Robert Nichols Gallery in
Santa Fe, and the Desert X outdoor exhibit in
Coachella Valley. In spring and summer 2025, Romero was found to be the single most exhibited living artist in the United States due to the large number of museum shows featuring her work. These included her retrospective “Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)” at the
Hood Museum of Art and the touring show “Cara and Diego Romero: Tales of Futures Past,” organized by the
Figge Art Museum. == Awards ==