Il nostro viaggio di 25 giorni alla scoperta di Cuba, un’isola dominata non solo dai colori e dalle vecchie Chevrolet, ci ha portati a scoprire i vicini Cubani, non solo intesi come popoli a noi simili ma ciò che ci ha colpito è il rapporto che hanno con i vicini di casa.
Matteo and I did not start with a precise idea of a photographic project. We weren't going to make one. We simply wanted to experience Cuba and its people, to understand how it feels to live with the embargo, to feel marginalized by the great world powers.
We thank Giuseppe Piserchia who was able to interpret and understand what we had in mind, creating a video that fully reflects what we experienced. The rest of the images are those not included in the video but to which we are most connected.
25 days
4 flights for a total of 28 hours
14 hours of travel by car for a total of 1095km
Why did we choose Cuba? We understood this as soon as we landed. Immediately you feel stripped of all the comforts and comforts that Western life has given us. An island full of fluorescent colors and old Chevrolets restored to captivate tourists. However, it hides something else. We have chosen to stop in 5 cities, Havana, Vignales, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Varadero. In each of these they soon abandoned the tourist centers to get lost, walking about 20 km a day between the suburbs.
A meeting was fundamental in our journey. The one with Vladimir, a professor of philosophy graduated with several masters, but a tour operator for a government agency. To sum up I will not be here to tell you about the hours that kept us spellbound listening to his stories. However, one of his words for us was the key to everything: “Cubans smile with their eyes but not with their hearts”.
Cuba is made up of simple things, of people on the streets or at the door of the house next to that of the neighbor. As a result he became best friend, so much so that he was called "family". So they spend their days chatting and then sharing their whole life. Cuba is also New Year's Day when the eldest turns a pig on a brazier for 8 hours. Cuba is a "Hola!" to any passerby. It is infinite hospitality: "mi casa es tu casa". Also it is destroyed roads and open sewers. It is stalls on the street and in homes, used as makeshift shops to sell anything you can find around.
We do not have the presumption to define it as a "photographic project" or a "travel reportage". In other words, it is our story, it is what we have experienced and perceived in these 25 days of Cuban life. A life in which we have immersed ourselves and in which we have merged, without fear or limits.
We wanted to tell about Cuba in images, ours. Each of them is linked to a story, a hug, a greeting, a smile and a face. It will remain forever in our memory, that is to say what best preserves our memories.
Photographers: Federica Ariemma and Matteo Lomonte
È un viaggio fotografico sincero. Scattato con gli occhi vuoti da pregiudizi o da cliché, spesso frequenti nella fotografia di viaggio. Probabilmente non è un vero reportage, come Federica e Matteo stessi scrivono, ma è sicuramente un racconto fatto con il cuore sincero, con vicinanza e rispetto dei cubani; un racconto che si pone una volontà maggiore; che non vuole documentare il viaggio in sè ma che nel suo piccolo vuole aiutare i cubani. Il video infatti ha proprio questo sapore…di comunicare al mondo (o semplicemente ai follower) le condizioni di “vita ristretta” imposta ai cubani dai blocchi commerciali internazionali; blocchi che impongono una vita ridotta al minimo indispensabile. La scelta di Federica e Matteo di indagare le periferie colpisce nel centro, è lontana dalle solite immagini di Cuba e ci restituisce un realismo intenso, scene di povertà quotidiana a cui il mondo e i cubani stessi (forse) si sono abituati. Una Cuba inedita che merita di essere vista e raccontata. Un racconto che emerge dal viaggio personale e aspira a una solidarietà sociale, troppo spesso dimenticata, della quale avremmo più bisogno, ogni giorno.