The curved windowpanes of this art deco office building in downtown Havana offer an ever changing array of abstracted reflections, depending on the position of the morning sun. I made this image from a nearby rooftop vantage point, taking advantage of the warm golden light that creates a mosaic of the surrounding architecture within these reflections.

I also made this image from a rooftop high over the center of downtown Havana. It is the early morning light that gives this image its beauty, abstraction, and meaning. That light reflects off the pavement, creating a river of gold from top to bottom of the well-worn concrete. I photographed the passage of numerous people and automobiles upon this gilded street. This is the image that creates the simplest and most relevant message. The extended shadows of the pedestrians lengthen their strides. The 1950’s American car, its characteristic tail fins clearly defined, anchors the image at the bottom of the frame. It seems to chase the shadow of its own colorful history. This is Havana, both present and past.

My high rooftop vantage point offered the only possible way to make such an image as this one. I reveal not only the food truck itself, but more importantly, exactly what it contains. A pile of orange carrots seems to explode on the roof of the cab, it’s thrust amplified by the extended arm of the driver, about to pull out into the oncoming traffic. The interior of the truck bed is dominated by piles of green bananas, along with sacks of other vegetables. The white plastic bag in the center of the truck draws the eye into the picture, making the reclining figure of the worker within the shadows just above it appear to us almost as a surprise. He grips the side of the truck with one hand as he stabilizes the other on the food below him. The rusting food truck, manned by a symbolic arm and a man resting on a bed of vegetables, becomes a metaphorical symbol for the vulnerable Cuban economy, surviving through hard labor and making the most of what it has.

A vintage American automobile rattles around a tight corner and heads towards us. It has obviously been repaired many times over the last half century. One of its headlight panels is green, while the rest of the body glows in iridescent blue. Cuba’s vast aftermarket of used auto parts, along with an army of knowledgeable mechanics, keep such cars as this on the road, year after year. I wanted to stress the patchwork repairs that went into this car by shooting it head on. I include not only the green headlight panel, but also feature the fog lamps mounted on the rusty bumper. One seems to glow, the other does not.

Most boxing fans have never heard of this gym, yet it is one of the Havana’s great sporting venues. One of the oldest boxing clubs in Havana, many of Cuba’s Olympic champions have at one time trained here. Although its equipment is ancient, it offers first-rate training from the ground up. It is an open-air facility, and we were visited it in the late morning when the sun was high and the light was harsh. Yet this high overhead light provided the punch (pun intended) for this shot. The vertical shadows of the ropes on the canvas floor draw the eye to the boxer practicing on the opposite side of the ring. I caught his arm as it echoed the thrust of the shadows. At the same time, I framed him within the horizontal ropes that give the scene its identity.

The hands of this boxer crush rolls of tape, strengthening muscles and tendons that must bear the brunt of the attack. I photographed this boxer dozens of times as he worked out, and this image conveyed the most intensity I saw all morning.

The boxer in the previous image moves into the ring for a footwork drill with another fighter. In this image, we can come to understand the well-worn nature of the gym itself and the surrounding neighborhood. The colors express the flavor of Cuba. The buildings in the background have not been painted in many years, are in a condition very common to Havana.

The streets and alleys of Havana still bear vivid marks of Cuba’s 53 year-old revolution. The most enduring revolutionary icon is the stark line drawing of Cuban military and political leader Che Guevara, based on a photograph made in 1960 by newspaper photographer Alberto Korda. It has since become a worldwide symbol of revolution. There are dozens of such Guevara images in the city – this version is on the wall of a shipping terminal on Havana Bay. I photographed it early in the morning, while it was still in the shadows. I waited for the lone figure to approach, giving the image its sense of scale and purpose. The heroic icon looms large just ahead of this man, a fading black ink drawing floating on an aging field of peeling paint. It is all part of Cuban history now – a rebellious metaphor now showing its age – and its scars.

A woman waits for a barred apartment house door to open, while another resident gazes out over the sea from the balcony overhead. Neither seems to acknowledge each other’s presence. The woman’s arm is cocked over her hip, letting everyone know that she is waiting, somewhat impatiently, to be admitted. The man’s hands are folded under his chin – his mind is elsewhere at the moment. Between them sprawls Havana in microcosm – ornamental grillwork, potted plants, carved wooden doors and shutters, and on the upper level, the inevitable fading paint.

A 19th century marble statue of Neptune stands on Neptuno Wharf, looming over the Malecon promenade at the entrance to Havana Bay. I photographed it from behind, in order to include a setting moon floating next to the raised trident. Meanwhile, a rising sun paints the marble statue in golden tones. Caught between the sun and the moon, this Roman god of water and the sea symbolizes Cuba’s identity as an island in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Royal Spanish Navy’s training ship, Juan Sebastian Elcano, enters Havana Bay breathing fire. I caught it heading right at us, cannons blazing a thunderous royal salute. One of the largest tall ships in the world, the Elcano was built in 1927. It has visited over 68 countries – including Cuba. It is used to train Spain’s naval cadets. I found it somewhat ironic that a Spanish naval vessel should enter Havana Bay during my visit – it was near this spot that the US Battleship Maine, exploded and sank in January, 1898, killing 266 US sailors. The US, wanting to wrest control of Cuba from Spain, blamed Spain for the disaster, and four months later launched the Spanish-American war. The cause of the explosion has never been verified. This image of a smoke shrouded Spanish naval ship expresses a sense of both past and present, adding a historical footnote to the history of Havana Bay.

While I was photographing the older man sitting on a tiny stool at the entrance to his home along his pair of dogs, the door opened, and another man came through it carrying a young child. Both men wear blue shirts with red sleeves, as well as trousers in varying shades of blue. The warm humid climate of Havana encourages an abundance of life on its streets and on its doorsteps. The worn paint on the door also tells its story – the home has been here a long time, and aesthetic improvements are a luxury few can afford.

Cuba’s cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the government. Despite American trade sanctions against all Cuban products, Cuba exports millions of cigars all over the world. They are considered to be among the world’s finest cigars. At a farm outside Havana, I photographed these tobacco leaves curing in a barn. The light coming from an open door just a short distance away illuminates the leaves hanging in front. By spot metering on the leaves in the front, I make the rest of the tobacco fade into the softly focused dark background.

I not only made a portrait of a tobacco worker (see http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/143582446) while in Cuba. I also made this portrait of his boss, the man who manages the entire farm. He presents more confrontational body language, and I add considerable environment. I did not direct this body language – he seemed very confident in front of a camera, and expressed himself accordingly. (We were later invited into the farmhouse for coffee, and I noticed numerous publications on display from around the world featuring portraits of this man.) He stands here with considerable authority. He not only oversees a large tobacco operation – his farm produces a variety of other agricultural products, including the coffee he gave us. He does not smile in my image – he simply is who he is, a man in charge.

Vinales moves at a slow pace. Horse drawn wagons are still used by trades people and farmers to get around. An Art Deco sculpture, most likely memorializing a long forgotten death of a mother or her child, stands on a median strip near the village’s main avenue. The greens, blues and yellow in this image characterize the nature of rural Cuba.

The late afternoon sun warms the green wall, chair, and plants on the porch of this small home, while also casting shadows that express the intensity of a photographer at work. The photographer is well out of the frame here, yet his shadowed profile suggests deep concentration. Meanwhile, the shadow of his camera and its dangling strap magically appears on the back of the chair just behind that profile. Nature plays its role on the opposite sides of the frame – tropical plants enter from the left, and the shadow of a tree enters the frame at right. The image also asks questions and demands answers from the viewer. What is this photographer photographing, and what may he be thinking about at the moment? Is it the play of shadows on the wall or floor? Is he photographing the relationship of the green wall and the yellow shutters? Are the chairs or plants his subject? We must wait to see his picture for such answers.

I juxtapose differing responses to a teacher’s question in a history class here. The topic was the Cuban revolution, and a portrait of Che Guevara, a key figure in that event, seems to be listening to the answer. All of the children in this school wear uniforms. The older children wear red bandanas around their necks, while the younger children wear blue bandanas. All wear white shirts, echoing the same combination of colors appearing in the Cuban flag.

This teacher knew I was making her picture, and her class was enjoying her self-consciousness. She found the situation very amusing, and I was able to make an image rich in human values. The photograph expresses great pleasure, along with a wonderful sense of humor. The blurred hand helps extend the moment in time, and the softly focused map of the world behind her establishes her identity as teacher.

This young boy seemed fascinated by my approach to photography. He could see that I was not photographing the kids who were pointing, waving, and laughing at me. He watched me intently as I searched for an alternative subject, using the door between us a partial shield. He was obviously shy, and he made a perfect subject for my purposes. He represents many of the children in this school were not yet sure about their own identity, and who remained cautious about their relationships with others. There is honesty to him that that is disarming. I also wanted to express how vulnerable he seems – unlike most of his classmates, he would not dare to walk out into the hallway to face my camera.

Wearing a blue bandana, this very young student is trying to figure out why I am making her picture. Eyes wide, she stares hard at the camera, and holds a finger to her lips. She seems both shy and vulnerable.

I saw very few of images of Cuba’s retired legendary leader Fidel Castro while in Cuba. He is said to keep a low profile these days. Yet Castro remains a prominent presence in the principal’s office of this elementary school. I met the principal himself in a hallway, and followed him as he walked the halls. Eventually he led me back to his office, where he seated himself at a cluttered desk, before a large portrait of Fidel Castro himself. As I was photographing the principal, a staff member came over and embraced him from behind. The image is all about authority on one hand, and human values on the other. Castro had been more or less in charge of Cuba for 50 years, while the principal is in charge of all who work and study at this school. The friendly embrace tells us how the school’s staff regards their leader.

By far the most startling work of contemporary art in all of Cuba is Fuster’s fanciful ceramic tile mosaic rendering of a symbolic “rural city” on the far west side of Havana. Inspired by the work of Picasso and Gaudi, Fuster launched the project in 1994, an effort that eventually involved virtually the entire neighborhood. Under Fuster’s direction, neighbors even transformed the walls of their own homes into ceramic fantasies. Fuster’s son, Alex, showed us through this surrealistic masterpiece. I built this image around the thrusting hands and arms that bring order out of chaos.

I’ve taken the liberty of titling this image with the name of Eugene O’Neill’s 1939 play. It is appropriate that I do so, because this image of an iceman escorting his frigid load through the streets of Havana features a timeless task that has been around at least as long as O’Neill’s play. Given Havana’s decaying vintage infrastructure, refrigeration is not a given. Blocks of ice must still be delivered on the backs of men such as these. I made this image from a moving taxicab, shooting through its front window into the back of the truck just in front of us. The iceman’s stern expression seems as chilly as the glistening pillars of ice surrounding him.

The coming of another day to a cemetery speaks of the inexorable passage of time itself. Using my spot meter, I carefully exposed for the brightest light, making most of these tombs fall into the shadows. The sun strikes the top of an ornate mausoleum, and grazes a huge monument to Havana's firemen.

The most fascinating tombs in this cemetery were those that are crumbling. They were originally intended to represent an eternal resting place, yet nature and time have combined over the years to negate any sense of the eternal here. This tomb seems to be caving in, its concrete and marble panels falling into disarray. The early morning sun casts shadows that accelerate the sense of decay.

The symbols of life and death can always be found juxtaposed within cemeteries. I stress such a comparison here by photographing a tomb featuring a statue of an idealized woman, gathered within a layering of fresh green vegetation in the foreground. I kept moving my vantage point to find an open spot among the leaves in which to place both the cross and the statue.

The lobby of a once exclusive apartment building has become a busy crossroads of a community. Here are worker carries a load of debris down a splintering marble staircase, anchored by a headless statue. A child walks past piles of groceries, awaiting delivery to a popular restaurant now operating on the building’s top floor. A fading mural, most likely in place for more than 50 years, features the visage of Camilo Cienfuegos, one of the heroes of the Cuban Revolution, superimposed on the national flag. Cienfuegos was one of Fidel Castro’s most important commanders during the guerrilla war against dictator Fulgencio Batista from 1957 to 1959. His plane vanished over the ocean in October, 1959, and no trace of it was ever found. This apartment building, built more than 100 years ago, was, like most Cuban real estate, turned into government property after the revolution. It features its own ballroom on the second floor, now used for drying laundry. A lengthy quote from a Castro speech is emblazoned on the wall in the upper left hand corner. This image offers a microcosmic look at what his revolution has produced.

I found this man working on the circuitry of a power supply in a public appliance repair shop. As his customer watched, he explained everything he was doing with great patience and care. This image expresses the talent residing in those large hands. He has virtually attached himself to the machine as he tries to coax it back to life. (The result of his labors can be seen on the following page at http://www.pbase.com/image/143582218)

I made this photograph from a glassed-in roof deck of one of Havana’s luxury hotels in the center of Old Havana. From this vantage point, I was able to look out over New Havana and make this image of a setting sun hovering over Havana Bay. I retain some detail in the shadows, revealing the mostly coarse architecture erected in Havana since the revolution. The single most graceful structure in this skyline is one of New Havana’s most celebrated buildings – the National Hotel of Cuba. Outlined against the hazy sky, it is the building topped by the two small towers at left center of this image. The “Nacional” was built in 1930, and is Cuba’s most historic hotel. Although it’s glory has faded, this now musty hotel once hosted the likes of Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Earnest Hemingway, and the infamous mobster Meyer Lansky. Lansky controlled the National Hotel’s hugely successful casino until Castro shut it down in 1960. The hotel was memorably dramatized in the film “Godfather, Part II.”

One of the very first photographs I made in Cuba becomes the final image of my city portrait of Havana. Our workshop’s initial challenge was to shoot the sunset from the historic Morro Castle Lighthouse at the entrance to Havana Bay. Our group of photographers left the bus and headed directly to the lighthouse, while I chose to stay behind in order to photograph this young dancer practicing leaps on the distant mounds surrounding the ramparts of the ancient Morro Castle Fort. She was at least 200 yards away, gracefully thrusting her body into space defined by a mound of dirt and a golden sky. I shot again and again, and froze the peak leaps in many different positions. This image was my final shot of her. Her extended pointed foot continues the slanting flow of the hill below. Her arms gracefully float in the air as her hair flies from her head. For me, this photograph celebrates life itself. It also expresses the character of Cuba’s young people – full of grace, strength, enthusiasm, and spirit. That is why I choose to close this 60 -image portrait of Havana with this photograph.