Car - Santa Maria Del Mar, Cuba - 1990

**When was the moment you knew it was going to be Cuba?**
The first day I was there. I went with a group through The Center for Cuban Studies. I arrived  in Havana and was out photographing and everything was interesting. There was an incredible openness in the people and the physicality of the city was that way too. The way the architecture was set up, the doors opened onto the street, so it was like walking into somebody's home. I would approach, and  people would say, "Come on in." I shot so much film on the first day, I thought, "I'm not going to have enough film." The thing about photography back then is that there were still places that had not been photographed much. It doesn't really work that way anymore.



**Can you tell us more about the openness of the people and their relationship to the camera?**
Well, to begin with, the people in Cuba are warm. And this was before cell phones. Cameras didn't even exist there, or they did, but on a very limited scale. There was none of that camera fatigue. When I look at the pictures, and at the people, there was something about the way that they looked back at me that said something about the energy that I was putting out there, some sort of emotional exchange. It shows how you come at somebody — if you're open, you're not being aggressive and if you're respectful. With all of those portraits, I would ask them before I took their picture. They would look back at me and they wouldn't change a thing. That was amazing.



**You took over 25,000 analog photographs on over 3,000 roles of medium format film. It seems like you were almost addicted.**
Yes it does! With that sort of street, or documentary photography, you can never hesitate. You have to be completely present and ready to shoot something quickly, and not question it. You have to go with your instincts. It becomes a reflex. It's kind of like that point where you're learning a language and you don't have to think about it anymore. Watching, responding… watching, responding. Also I felt like I needed to document everything,  and see every part of the island. So it was also about exploring.

Dancing - Isabela de Sagua, Cuba - 1993

**So in a way, it was about covering the whole place, and being possibly one of the first photographers to do that so extensively?**
There were a few people, but not many, and particularly when you got further out there. I remember this little town Baracoa — people didn't even know what to think. It was a sort of, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" There were no tourists.



**How does Cuba relate to your other photography?** 
Adventure, exploration and curiosity have always been there, but I think my real motivation, or compulsion has always been to capture places before they are forever changed. Cuba had been so isolated, and it seemed inevitable that it would be developed. I think that's what was imprinted on me, growing up as a child in St. Thomas — witnessing the homogenization, the physical development of the landscape — and I remember in the 70s being really disheartened by that. I felt that because of Cuba's isolation, for better or for worse,  it had been saved from some of that homogenization, and it was true.

Once it happens, you can't go back. It's sad. Change is inevitable, but when you start making giant leaps on the physical landscape of a place, the damage is done. Look at New York. If I had only realized what was happening, I would have shot even more. I would have photographed the Music District, which was a street that only had music instrument stores, and the Notions District with its trimmings and button stores. With my early years photographing in New York, it was more about exploration. I didn’t realize that in fact it was about documenting things before they're gone.

More Records - Havana, Cuba - 1993

Plane Ride - Remedios, Cuba - 1992

Shoe Repair - Cueto, Cuba 1993

Girls sleep in the sand at a local beach — Santa Maria del Mar — outside of Havana

View on July 26 - Havana, Cuba - 1993

Memorial Gonzalez - Ciego de Avila, Cuba - 1992

Guitar Gun - Las Tunas, Cuba - 1993

Mural at The Bay of Pigs - Playa Giron, Cuba - 1993

Beauty Salon in Vedado-Havana, Cuba - 1993

Helado - Havana, Cuba - 1994

Guagua - Central Havana, Cuba - 1994

An Interview with

Photography

90s Cuba

**Where/from whom have you found the most inspiration in your aesthetics and style of filming?**
I’ve always admired the surf films of Joe G, Taylor Steele, Kai Neville and Jason Baffa. These films and the experiences they created for my friends and I watching as teenagers are imprinted in my mind. Each film with its own approach, but always celebrating quality cinematography, surfing and visual montages of the places along with the surfing itself. Apart from the genuine stoke that watching good surfing provides, there is also an escapism aspect that I think I partook in making The Rolling East. It’s no coincidence I started shooting it in March 2020.

**What are your favorite types of shots in filming surf? Any other insight into types of waves/environments you love to find?** 
While I like shooting tight and straight on, which can present the action pretty objectively and also reveal how well someone is (or isn’t) surfing, I really prefer to find angles that tell more of the story, whether that’s with some foreground or at an angle that shows some of the geography of the place. Shooting from the water always adds an immediacy and scale, and when it’s big, doing so is no small feat.

**What's the difference between shooting in a place like New York, that you know well, and a place like Mexico, that you don't know?**
I know New York, and I’ve often found places on days where there’s no swell and considered how it may look with good surf. You have an advantage of familiarity at home, but in ways that may lead to imagery that’s redundant. So, traveling and capturing new places, I’ve found myself taking things in without the lifetime of preference and well, bias, I have at home. It’s always fun to see how visitors capture New York and our experience here, often capturing things in ways a local may not have thought to see.

**Is there anything in surf films that has been less explored, or that you would really like to explore in the future?**
There are plenty of more story-focused opportunities in surfing I may explore down the line. Films like One California Day (dir Jason Baffa) did such a tasteful job of presenting Southern California’s history and variance of personality. I feel like something of that nature for the Northeast would be fascinating;- it would just take a few years to get all that captured.

Interview by

Film by

The Rolling East

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