All year, we're highlighting 50 States of Art projects around the United States, starting with Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Utah, and Florida. To learn more, click here. Their silence is deafening. A series of emotionally compelling photographs depict a slice of the diverse Minnesota population living far away from their native lands. With earnest eyes and a lack of pretense, the subjects ofSelma Fernandez Richter's photography series The Ache for Home yearn with quietude and humility for a life and environment no longer in the background. Richter takes hold of the Maya Angelou quote, "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place that we can go as we are and not to be questioned,” and lifts the words to reflect both her own experiences as an immigrant, and those of others. Originally from Mexico, Richter lived in her home country up until 2011, when escalating drug violence in the country made relocation the wisest option for the artist.

She eventually settled in Minnesota, making sure to take her history and culture along with her. Her series, The Ache for Home,reflects not only the lateral hum of Midwestern America, but the vertical twang of homesickness