Where are you from?
de Bert Danckaert, Ulla Deventer, Ricardo Elías, Daylenis Blanco Lobaina, Ossain Raggi González, Simon Roberts
Like photography itself, the Cuba Photography Missions is slippery, complex and multi-layered. It is self-defined as a project in documentary photography; it is a collaborative international exchange among institutions and artists; it is an educational initiative; it has resulted in art. As someone whose knowledge of Cuba comes, in part, from direct experience of the place and more from photographs of it, it has been my pleasure to take part in this effort, adding some historical context as well as a personal perspective. Towards, the end of this project, in the beginning of 2020, I took part in a symposium about it in Havana just before we all locked down. Now, a year later, I am writing for the catalogue. It's dark March in Cambridge; Cuba and the person I was when I went there seem very far away. As usual I turn to photographs and the ideas around them, hoping to figure out how I know what I do about Cuba and how that relates to documentary ideas and ideals. Exhibition: Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Belgium (04.02. - 17.04.2022)
