CUBA
LIBRE:
Photographing
Havana and its architecture
Like
looking at a broken clock, you are never quite confident what year it
is.
After
seeing the remains of the rafts of desperate Cuban refugees that washed
up on Ponte Vedra Beach where I walk, I began this photographic record
in 1995. Only wet T-shirts, sneakers and water bottles remained in craft
wired together with old 55 gallon drums and styrofoam. These voyages killed
an unknown number of Cubans, almost in sight of the Florida beaches. They
are a sober reminder of the misery our Cuban neighbors live in, and that
our own tax dollars and detached attitudes play a substantial role in
continuing. With the help of the Centro Nacional De Conservacion, Restauracion
Y Museologia in Havana I began this undertaking. Cuba's 400 years of architecture
remains ravishing yet ravaged. Like looking at a broken clock, you're
never quite confident what year it is. My color prints are the beginning
of a long term assignment to illustrate the horror of living in a Marxist
economy. The style is most influenced by Walker Evans' seminal work of
the 1930s in unsentimental, formal compositions to let the subjects tell
their own stories. The last and only Communist police state in the western
hemisphere has remained largely un-evolved since the 1960 revolution. A
lasting final remnant of Marxism, nearly everyone has the security of
being a government employee and living in government housing. There are
no private schools or free press. Synagogues and churches are nearly
destroyed. The entrepreneurial spirit has been mostly wiped out after a generation of Socialism
and emigration. Someday soon I hope to photograph the handprint of free
enterprise on these buildings and in the people. These images are being
made to experience Socialist Cuba for myself, and share its tragic and
beautiful truth with the viewer. Neil
Rashba
Now, original
artist signed prints from the show that toured the US are for sale.
Contact (904)273-0388
or e-mail