The Heroic Present: The Gypsy Photographs of Jan Yoors presents a candid view of a people stereotyped, maligned, and persecuted on the eve of World War II, during the Holocaust, and into the 1970s. Jan Yoors, the son of a Belgian artist, began a life long journey with the Roma (commonly called "gypsies") in 1934 at the age of twelve. Yoors photographed the Roma for over forty years as a "protest against oblivion, a cry of love for this race of strangers who have lived among us for centuries and remained apart."

This exhibition was created in conjuction with the Yoors Family Partnership and Whirlwind Design, and drew upon the expertise of scholar Dr. Ian Hancock at the University of Texas at Austin.