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View ProfilesPublished June 28, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.
In a photograph titled "El hijo de Yemayá," a man clad only in swim trunks stands on a stone jetty and thrusts his arms overhead as ocean waves churn around him. At the horizon, a city skyline punctures the cloud-puffed sky. Even in black and white, the image evokes the sound, smell and color of the sea. And when you learn that the distant city is Havana, another drama unfolds. Is the man's gesture a good-morning salutation to the world or an entreaty?
Maybe neither. Viewers who know that Yemayá is the Yoruba orisha of motherhood and the sea, and that hijo means son, might get a whole different vibe from the image.
Tomás Inda Barrera exhibited this photo in 2021 at the Escuela de Fotografía Creativa de La Habana, a school he created and directs. Two years later, it's part of an exhibition at the Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction. Barrera shares the space with three other Cuban photographers: Alfredo Sarabia Fajardo, Yadira Ismael Sotomayor and Nadhiesda Inda González. None was able to obtain a visa to attend the reception for the show, which was organized by Vermont members of the Cuban American Friendship Society (CAFS).
The goal of that nonprofit is embedded in its name: to build friendly connections between the two countries, in contrast with the U.S. government's official embargo of the Caribbean country. To foster such relationships, CAFS leads theme-based trips to Cuba.
"Sandy [Baird] went early last year and came back saying how desperate the situation was," said Diane Elliott Gayer, a principal coordinator of the photography exhibit and the owner of GreenTARA Space in North Hero. Both women are involved in the Burlington-based CAFS and have traveled to Cuba multiple times. "We thought having a people-to-people exchange might help, and indirectly help economically," Gayer continued.
The cultural exchange "could have been with anybody," she added, but she'd met Barrera on a previous trip, "so I'd already broached it."
Two men and two women were invited to participate in the Vermont exhibit. "It wasn't until a week before the [June 11] reception that we knew definitely they weren't coming," Gayer said. "But we felt it was important that we go ahead with it, to show the embassy we were serious about this. Maybe next time they get an invitation, this will make a difference."
Happily, digital images don't need visas. Gayer picked up files from three of the artists during a trip to Cuba in March. González, who was in Argentina at the time, sent her files through a server. Darkroom Gallery owner Ken Signorelli provided the frames and the venue.
The exhibit does not offer typical touristy scenes of the island — pretty beaches, 1950s cars, pastel architecture. Rather, it showcases contemporary work with distinct visions, styles and subjects. "Putting on my curatorial hat, I recognized that they have different voices and use the camera in very different ways," Gayer said.
Barrera's pictures are documentary-esque — the show's only images in black and white — yet their evocative compositions invite viewer interpretation.
Sotomayor's vivid portraits of octogenarians are from her series on guajiros, or peasant farmers. The salt-of-the-earth subjects project quiet dignity. "They are people with a humility and sensitivity not found in other places in Cuba," she observes in her statement.
González's photos also represent a series: women, sometimes nearly nude, posed in a variety of cryptic tableaux with atmospheric lighting. In one, an older woman draped in a sheet reclines in a cast-iron bathtub, one arm dangling lifelessly outside it. A man, shirtless but bedecked with numerous necklaces, stands in the background with hands folded respectfully. The title gives us a clue: "La Muerte de Marat #2."
"Her nudes are symbolic," Gayer noted. "I looked at these many times, and I'm still thinking about what I've seen."
Fajardo chose an altogether different symbol as subject: the turtle, a creature known for its lack of speed. He began photographing a small turtle at sites around Havana in 2015, when "the news spoke of improvements in relations between the governments of Cuba and the USA" and the city began to fill with tourists "who felt the island was a trip back in time," Fajardo explains in an artist statement. But governments, like turtles, seem to eschew haste. "In Cuba, everything happens at a slower time, especially changes," he concludes.
"Four Cuban Photographers" is on view through July 29. A complementary show, "Vermonters' Views of Cuba," featuring photos of locals who have traveled there, is on view through July 6 at Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.
Tags: Visual Art, Four Cuban Photographers, Tomás Inda Barrera, Alfredo Sarabia Fajardo, Yadira Ismael Sotomayor, Nadhiesda Inda González, Darkroom Gallery
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