Book Review: "The Cubans" by Jay Seldin
Photographer Jay Seldin made his first trip to Cuba nearly a decade ago, at the end of the Bush administration.
"I came with a group of artists on an exchange program," Seldin said. "There was no real program for us. We just wandered the streets. When I got home and looked at my work, I realized that Cuba was really a haven for photographers. And I thought other photographers would like the same opportunity I had."
"The Cubans."
Seldin, who lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and spent decades in the NJ School System as a teacher, started organizing photography trips to Cuba under the people-to-people tour license.
When I traveled to Cuba on one of his trips in 2014, it was obvious that Seldin had become a Cuban insider, maintaining close contacts in the Cuban community, which afforded him great photo opportunities -- in dance halls, private homes, boxing gyms and tobacco farms, wherever the Cubans lived, prayed and worked.
Now, Seldin has published a new photography book called "The Cubans," which is the culmination of years of discovery and the fruit of those labors. The book was inspired by Robert Frank's "The Americans," a highly influential photography book published in beat-generation 1958, which itself was influenced by the work of photographer Walker Evans.
Seldin's photos of everyday Cuba are presented simply -- in black and white -- with only brief captions: "Waiting for the barber." "Jesus and dominoes." "The handshake." There are funeral processions, kids walking to school, car mechanics, military men, worshippers, baseball players, Che posters and lots of candy-colored apartment buildings with bright paint, much of it peeling and disintegrating in the salty sea air of Havana.
Jay Seldin, right, with Cuban photophers Alain Gutierrez, left, and Eduardo Garcia, center.
One of my favorite photos in the book is titled "Stairway to the Home." Three people share a narrow staircase leading to their apartments. A little girl in a school uniform scurries past a shirtlesss man in flip flops. There are no guardrails and the whole thing looks like it's about to come crashing down -- which, sadly, happens a lot in crumbling Havana. A tangled mess of electrical wires frames the image perfectly. (As anyone who has been to Cuba knows, you could do a whole photo book on electrical wires!)
The opening of Cuba to travelers from the United States makes this the perfect time for "The Cubans" to be published and reviewed. Americans are curious to see this country that has been forbidden for the last six-plus decades, since Fidel Castro's Revolution in 1959.
When I visited Cuba with Seldin in December 2014, we were lucky to be in the tobacco country town of Vinales when Presidents Raul Castro and Barak Obama announced their agreement "to move on a path towards the future, and leave behind some of the circumstances of the past that have made it so difficult" and restore diplomatic relations. Our state appointed guide, upon hearing the news via a text message, was equally shocked and excited, as were we.
"That was a great moment," Seldin said. "For Obama to say the embargo didn't work was a victory for the Cubans. He was correcting a wrong, which is what I think democracy is all about."
"The Cubans" is Seldin's testament to this changing country, a snapshot of a place and time, and a bittersweet work of art that does a thoughtful job of capturing the island and its people. -- Andrew Tarica
For more information or to purchase "The Cubans," visit www.thecubansphotobook.com.