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01 / Cuba

The people behind the postcard.

Where music replaces silence.

Havana · Trinidad

Three street musicians playing guitar and bongos in front of a turquoise storefront in Havana

I visited Cuba many years ago, long before photography became the direction I wanted to take my life. Looking back at these photographs now, what stays with me isn't simply the colour, the old cars or the architecture.

It's the people. The musicians in the street. A woman working behind a sewing machine. Someone standing quietly in a doorway. At the time, I was simply photographing what caught my attention. Looking back, I realise I was already looking for the same thing I photograph today: the people who make a place feel alive.

A woman working at a sewing machine in a textile workshop in Cuba
An older man in sunglasses standing against a yellow wall in Trinidad, Cuba
A cobblestone street in Trinidad, Cuba, lined with colourful buildings

A place reveals itself in the ordinary. In a face. A conversation. Laundry hanging above a street.

Laundry hanging from a balcony above a street in Havana
A red vintage car parked on a cobblestone street in Trinidad
Pastel-coloured houses along a street in Havana
Palm trees lining the entrance to the Hotel Nacional in Havana

I don't remember every detail of those days anymore. Maybe that's why photographs matter. They keep a version of a place alive long after the journey has ended.