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ABOUT CUENTOS: STORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM CUBA (It's all Jimmy Buffett's fault)

The first Buffett show that I attended was called, “Havana Daydreamin',” after one of his early albums. The stage backdrop was an enormous representation of El Morro – the fortress that guards the entrance to Havana harbor – complete with a working lighthouse. Sometime during that evening I decided that I wanted to visit Cuba.

It took me several years to get there, mostly because traveling to Cuba was not so easy or legal then. There were “photography tours” then, but they were mostly of the canned variety where participants were bussed to locations such as the Malecón, given five minutes to take a picture, then herded back on the bus to the next location, likely something the Cuban government wanted foreigners to see. But I need to find my own photographs, working at my pace and responding to subjects that appeal to me.

Eventually I learned about Steve Anchell, an accomplished photographer and author who had been leading photographers to Cuba for many years. A previous participant ensured me that Steve would “give me enough rope to hang myself,” so I signed up for one of his trips in 2013. Once turned out not to be enough so I went back with him again. I ended up being his assistant on several subsequent trips, from which I learned much about Cuba, Cubans, and navigating this sometimes complicated place.

My photographic objective on these visits was to continue work on a project I call “entropy,” and which I define as the result of man failing to expend the energy required to maintain his creations. Things like rusting automobiles and decaying architecture, things that Cuba is full of. But I soon noticed that Cubans were “getting in the way of” my pictures; not in a bad way, but more like seeming to belong in them. And my journal began to fill with stories about these people.

My practice became to develop and proof my film when I returned to the US, and select images that deserved to become well-printed photographs. I posted these photographs on Facebook and in a blog on my web site, usually accompanied by a story about the subject of the photograph. I received many compliments about the work, often including a suggestion that “you should write a book.” So I did.

My concept was to create a book of word-picture diptychs: a photograph on one page accompanied by a story on the facing page. In most cases I rewrote each story until it would fit on one 8-1/2 x 11” page. To be included, each photograph had to have a compelling story and each story had to have an illustrative photograph. My idea did not survive the publishing process, as the physical size of the book meant that the text would take more than a single page. But the related words and photographs still stayed together, and in its final form the stories assume a more important place that the photographs support. In retrospect I realize that works of art assume a life of themselves, and that the artist should get our of their way and let them live and breathe.

This project has occupied a significant portion of my life over the past decade, a commitment that was richly rewarded the day that I opened a box from the publisher and was able to hold the finished product in my hands. I am grateful to the many people who have encouraged me along the way, who helped me find a publisher, and especially the many Cuban friends I have made whose stories and photographs appear in it.

I hope that you enjoy reading the book as much as I have loved creating it.