Resistencia

The group of photographs I’ve decided to present to this contest is part of a bigger series called “Resistencia” taken in Cuba especially in the city of Havana during the past five years.

Through these photographs, I’ve tried to speak about several conflicts that the people from the city of Havana are constantly facing such as the lack of materials to be able to restore the city, the constant aging of the cars and the deterioration of the city through its weather.

The objects part of the pictures are almost falling down or missing a fundamental piece that makes them useless such as the water pipe broken, the basketball playground without a nest to play or the trash bin next to sea front without a bag.

In some of the images, we can see some people in the background to enforce the idea that the Cubans live their daily life facing these kinds of problems constantly and the deterioration of the urban landscape is part of their universe.

Most of these objects have never been replaced and are resisting and sometime used in other ways.

For example, some of the traditional American cars have been turned into convertible so they are able to give a more expensive tour to the tourists around the city.

Havana´s surrealistic urban landscape offers visitors a world full of poetry with contradictory symbols that for me reflects the tension between the social and economic context that the people live in.