Nope, not a bride and groom picture, this delicate act of chivalry is her chambelán, dance partner, assisting la quinceanera, a girl's fifteenth birthday, out of the carriage, in La Habana, Cuba, where the tradition is still practiced despite the fact that Cuba is a secular state. Catholicism is the largest organzied religion in Cuba, however, in 1962, Fidel Castro closed nearly all 400 Catholic schools claiming that they were teaching dangerous beliefs.
Hope this counts as another clip or two! I just came across my pictures for the Los Angeles Times Travel Blog. Ive rarely seen my work come up as file but it was just a cool reminder of how far photography can travel and how far i travel for photography:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2009/07/cubas-craigslist.html
Photo:
Vendors sell spices, fruit, flowers and more every Sunday at the
farmers market across the street from the Capitolio Nacional in Havana.
Credit: Lianne Milton / For The Times
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http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/ticket-sales-open-fo-4584/
[Photo: Cubans and tourists flock to a market in Havana. Credit: Lianne Milton / For The Times]
My friend, photographer Andrew Craft, forward a link to a newly release book which to my surprise is a photograph of me, taken by my friend Holly Wilmeth www.hollywilmeth.com We are just tickled to see it on a cover and look forward to reading this book!
I finally processed a roll i've had since last year! here are two pictures from a holga that made it through. dunno what happened to the rest but will take a look at the neg.
This picture was taken with my holga.
the new army -
across from an old printing shop that holly and I stumbled upon, we saw these kids playing bang bang in the street with toy guns. in front of a yellow wall and door way, holly photographed portraits of the kids while i shot candidly from the sidelines. a man comes up to us, i thought to question why we were photographing kids with guns, but what he said surprised me: "They are getting ready for the Americans when they invade."
beisbol -
when music and dancing is the rhythm and soul of life on this island, baseball is passion. it's what makes them feel free, like in the motion and movement of dancing. it gives them something to dance to and something to cheer for when there's little else. baseball is everywhere. in the streets, on the tv, or empty fields. its in conversations over peso pizza, or debates in the plaza. so when holly smacked the ball down center field, it gave us something to cheer about too. we cheered for each other. i can't believe she hit the ball! my turn. clank! the kids couldn't see the ball as Holly and I ran around bases after sunset. There were only two. First and third. the important ones in this barren field in vinales. i can't believe we hit the ball!
Holly smacks one down center field -
Homeplate -
At bat -
The players -
Waiting -
i was feeling a little low-confident one day in vinales riding in our little white rental car...whats the name, the wheels were so little that they looked like buttons. i was wierded out on this shooting spree and since i had never really gone on a shooting trip before with other photographers, it was my first time. yeah. it made me feel wierd.
jeje or eheheheh. anyhoo, i love my friend holly. and holly i'm sorry i was a poop. but it only lasted for 1/2 the day right!! i was feeling like my picture-taking was sucking. i was out of the groove. totally out of the groove. like off the track and in the ditch (another story). ultimately what it was, i was feeling shitty because i thought my pictures looked like crap. what i was seeing looked like crap. does that make sense? or so i thought. its all about confidence. my eyes and my head sometimes conflict.
so she pushed me out of our little white jellybean car and i hopped onto this bus. its not your ordinary bus. it was a tonka truck bus. it was so cool. i hopped in with my bad spanish and just starting talking. asking where the bus was going, where they were going (they were a bunch of teenagers in the tonka truck). they were laughing at me probably thinking how silly i am that i'm in there with them taking pictures of them laughing about having their picture taken, realizing that my friend holly is driving the little white jellybean car behind us. but i swear to god, i was chasing laughter. it was all i needed to entirely lift my spirits.
so then they had the truck stop for me. the truck skidded to a stop, spilling fish water all over the feet of this mom, who's child was sleeping next to her. that's a bummer. fish water.
oooh i just realized. why didn't i take a picture of holly in the jelly bean behind the tonka truck!!!! why!!!!!
What Abel said in an interview. This is a man who has been waiting his lifetime to leave an island. He arrived as a boy and will leave as an old man. He's obligation to help his ailing father and to keep a business afloat, to make the Chinese dream a success only proved a disappointment when the Revolution happened. They then lost everything, including their only ticket back to China: just enough money. He held my hands and said: Go and live the life I never had. Abel awaits his Cuban wife and the right papers to reunite with his son in Costa Rica.
"What is written on your arm is in the past. It is not who you are in the future."
