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In Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited (University of New Mexico Press), Rick Nahmias documents the lives of the marginalized, focusing on religious communities, including a deaf community of the Mormon Church, a Zen Buddhist meditation group in San Quentin State Prison, and Cham Muslim survivors of Khmer Rouge genocide. With insight and craft, he blends a liturgical moment with a hovering question or a challenge. Short narratives complement the powerful stories that the photographs tell.

Jacopo Pontormo painted the Visitation (1514–16) for the Church of the Annunciation in Florence, Italy, where the fresco remains. The scene depicts the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth (Luke 1:39–45). Elizabeth is the first person to confess that Jesus, even in the womb, is “my Lord” (1:43). Pontormo offers a creative depiction of the scene, adding various details to shape the viewer’s interpretation. Unlike the biblical narrative, Pontormo’s fresco is filled with an entourage of characters.

My ethic is inspired by the rural farming community to which I was born,” writes painter and printmaker Michele Ramirez, whose grandparents grew and harvested crops in California’s Central Valley. In her black-and-white linocuts, Ramirez details the lives of Mexican-American laborers, creating poignant freeze-frame moments. “Despite their critical role in our economy,” says Ramirez, these farmworkers “remain largely invisible—usually viewed from a speeding car as abstract figures grouped in fields.”