“Estimado Cubano”

La Habana, Cuba

Nikon  D810

March 2016

Pictorico Digital Internegative

Palladium on Hahnemülhle Platinum Rag

This man exudes Cuban pride. It is not a false pride. It is a deep and abiding sense of place and culture. Many people would feel downtrodden, given the conditions to which they have been subjected, from the American blockade to the Soviet abandonment causing the “Special Period”, but Cuba is not a nation or a people to be defined by others. Their sense of art and life is true to itself. This man stood in the mid day sun for his photo with his Che shirt… and thanked me for seeing him. “No hay de que.”