The project

The 1990s was a time of economic and social crisis in Cuba, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. After decades of strict state control over all forms of cultural production, themes and technology, a shift in cultural policies that started in the previous decade allowed Cubans to use photography not only to document their immediate surroundings and daily lives—in ways that resembled the strong documentary tradition that thrived after the 1959 revolution— these photographers were the first ones to effectively use their cameras as tools to create art.

The more relaxed climate for artistic creation outside of state-sponsored institutions coincided with a deep economic crisis, and opened up a path for the exploration of topics that had not been explored by Cuban photographers before, like the representation of marginalized subjects, poverty, emigration, political dissidence, race and gender issues, among other themes.

The idea behind this project stems from the research I conducted as part of my thesis at the University of Havana in 2013, that became a book of interviews with ten of the most influential photographers of the 1990s generation. The purpose of this archive is to expand on that research and to make information available that is currently scattered in different archives in Cuba and abroad, some of which has neither been digitized nor published.

The archive’s purpose is to display these artifacts online, while simultaneously contextualizing the processes, histories and languages of their production.

I also would like to build a resource that can be used as a pedagogical tool for Cuban visual culture courses, and that allows me and other scholars to complicate the narratives around the visual iconography of the Special Period.

If you are interested in sharing ideas or resources, feel free to reach us at cubanphotographyarchive@gmail.com.