I have just returned from a week in Cuba. I was there with a group through Ventura College. I was there to not only take photographs but also to collect art and photographs. There were not many vintage photographs of the kind I like available. About 10 p.m. one night I was walking home to our hotel with photographer Sky Bergman when I spotted a used book store that was open. I went in and started talking in all the Spanish I had and asked to see photographs. They brought out piles of them and I sat down and sorted through them and made a pile of “keepers”. One that I acquired is the one above of Che smoking a cigar.
After I arrived back home to Santa Paula I Googled for images of “Che smoking cigar”. I was not able to find this particular image anywhere on the web. Someone out there might know about it. I’m also curious about the signature. It was signed in pencil in the lower right and it looks like Rey or Ray to me. I do not have the resources on the history of Cuban photography that I have on the rest of the world. This might be a challenge to track down the photographer or when and where it was taken. I do like the casual pose.
I’m processing a few thousand images that I took digitally on the trip. I’ll post some of my shots when time allows.
4 responses so far ↓
Walter Lippmann // June 8, 2008 at 11:46 am |
Nice new image of Che. Thanks for sharing it with the world via the Internet. I’ll tell lots of other people about it through the Yahoo news group on Cuba which I direct.
My father and his parents lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1942. They were German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, and not political left-wingers. That family history is where my own interest in Cuba comes from.
Cuban society today represents an effort to build an alternative to the way life was under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who ran Cuba before Fidel Castro led a revolution there. No one complained about a lack of human rights and democracy in those days, but U.S. businesses were protected.
Some things work, some don’t. Like any society, Cuba its flaws and contradictions, as well as having solid achievements. No society is perfect. But we can certainly learn a few things from Cuba’s experience.
We should all be free to visit Cuba. We can visit China and Vietnam, even North Korea, Syria and Iran, why can’t we visit Cuba and see it for ourselves? Cuba is our neighbor and we should simply normalize relations with the island.
Since August 2000, the CubaNews list, a free Yahoo news group has compiled a wide range of materials, pro and con, about Cuba, its people, politics and culture, and life within the island and affecting it in the Cuban diaspora abroad.
Dana // June 8, 2008 at 12:39 pm |
John,
There are over 300 shots of Che at this website, http://www.sancristobal.cult.cu/sitios/Che/Index.HTM, and several appear to be taken at the same time as the one you are curious about. Perhaps you can write the webmaster and see if he/she knows who the photographer is.
Dana
sergio // June 9, 2008 at 2:27 pm |
hey, john!
just wondering what cameras you use for travel photography…
it seems like lately, i have been taking just a little digital point and shoot camera with me, as when i travel lately, i feel like an SLR weighs me down, and i don’t take as many good candids as i normally would, if i just had to grab my little camera and snap..
i also find that most everything gets a little tweak in photoshop, so the images i get with a little camera, while not as tight as the SLR, are still good, and very usable..
but… when i shoot with the big SLR.. the shots through great glass are just.. better..
i dunno.. it is a real problem for me.. which cameras to take..
sespe // June 9, 2008 at 3:19 pm |
Hi Sergio,
It was a real challenge to select equipment and then make it all fit. Max is often 45 lbs. I packed 31 lbs. of equipment and very few clothes. I’m learning to travel light, except for cameras.
For a “small” camera I had a Canon G9 converted to infrared. I shot about 900 images on that. I could carry it everywhere. Since I try to make large prints from my files I often need large image files.
I also carried the Canon 5D with a 16-35 wide angle. I carried but did not need or use a 70-200 zoom. Next time I would bring the wide and a mid-range zoom like my 35-70. That would cover most things and save the space and weight taken by the big zoom.
I use a tripod a lot and so took one. For some reason I thought I was missing the mounting screw for the ball head so I could not make use of it. When I returned home it was there and working all the time. A wasted opportunity for some long exposures. I ended up propping up my camera on a water bottle or the G9 for an improvised tripod.
Then there’s all the battery chargers, etc. I brought and used a Wolverine digital media storage device. I liked it a lot and could download all images at the end of each day. I could also show my portfolio on the screen to locals.
I’m going to continue to learn more about traveling light. I want all carry on. I want to travel light so I can bring every piece of photo equipment I will need and not deny myself.
I must also learn to SLOW DOWN and not rush shots. I want to think of my 5D as I would a view camera. Set it up and then check and re-check every setting to get the best images.
The other issue is sticking a big camera in people’s faces. Last trip to Cuba used an old Rolleiflex so I could look down into the viewfinder and be unobtrusive. I would like to get something that allowed me to “cheat” by holding the 5D at my chest and looking down into a screen to compose and shoot. I shoot from the hip a lot but also missed shots that resulted in poor cropping. I’ll post some soon.
John