little girl walking past a black Cuban car blowing up a yellow balloon

Cuba Street Photography

Photographs From Another Time

April 22, 2021

Back in 2016 we had one of the most extraordinary experiences we’ve had as photographers. It was a trip that holds a truly special place in our hearts and one that inspired many others in the subsequent years including travels to Sri Lanka, Japan and Mexico to name a few. But Cuba, a country lost in time, really was something special and a place we’ve thought about a lot over the last year with travel an impossibility.

There were a lot of reasons that trip stood out. First and foremost the people were so warm, open and welcoming we felt an instant connection with them and one that hopefully came through in the photographs. Secondly it turned out to be a genuinely historic week, coinciding as it did with Barack Obama becoming the first U.S. president in Havana since 1928. And thirdly, of perhaps less global significance but a nonetheless important step for us it was the first time we shot with the Fujifilm X-Pro2 – a camera that helped us to break our mental barriers between the way we photographed the street and the way we photograph weddings and unify the two. So it was really one of those pivotal moments in our career that we will always look back fondly on and connecting the dots backwards it is clear how important Cuba was on our career.

Street trips are always something that we now do to practise our wedding photography and try out new ideas and concepts, we have been continuing our street work in the UK when we have been able to. But another big project that we have been exploring during lockdown is our #yorkplaceretro series on instagram, a look back at our wedding photography images through the years. And with travel restrictions still in place we have started to do the same for our street photography work.

Looking back through Cuba we were somewhat surprised at how many images had in fact never been shown despite our fondness for them. The collection shared in the blog post were just that – a collection; a selection of images that to us felt coherent next to one another and documented a journey from dawn to night and so many of these images simply didn’t fit that precise mould. But some of these images for whatever reason just didn’t mean as much to us back then. Photographs represent a frozen fraction of a second in time and yet time does not stand still around them, it changes them day by day. Photographs continually change and develop with the viewer and photographers’ understanding of the world, and sometimes an image doesn’t ring true until time has edited the story behind it.

So please enjoy this collection of forgotten images from another time, from a country lost in time.

Dom & Liam

little girl walking past a black Cuban car sun worshiping on a beach in Trinidad, Cuba silhouette of a child walking past two people holding a red umbrella in Cuba a boy kicking a football in Cuba a man walking a pig in Havana, Cuba a man sat in a blue car next to a blue wall a child playing with a hulla hoop, another girls face framed in the hoop a dog's tail framed within a sea of people a cowboy through a window in Cuba a man smoking next to a poster with a couple kissing beside him silhouette of a man riding a bike little boy in a large landscape boys playing baseball in Havana, Cuba builders in Havana, Cuba colourful motif with two women woman with a giant cigar cat and bicycle in Cuba men standing on a chair in Cuba women umbrella with woman making a phone call yellow and blue building with two people walking past elderly man walking past with similar motif three children looking bored as a bike goes past workers in Havana, Cuba Cuba scene people hanging out three people working on a house driving down Havana's Malecon looking at a blue car baseball game with the boys in Cuba Boy behind a wall with his hand in the foreground woman standing in Havana, Cuba car garage with a man sitting down man standing next to his gate four performers and their agent sitting on a wall hand appeared from behind a wall with a water squirter gun cat stretching and dog walking past with a stick little boy balancing a football in Cuba, Havana person in a car with a building behind and some children sitting on a step four people and a black and white cat on the Havana's Malecon playing football in Havana, Cuba elderly woman sat in a building in Havana, Cuba a man on a phone in coloured lights in Havana, Cuba horse with blinkers in Trinidad, Cuba boy playing football in Trinidad with a backside of a horse showing group shot at Trinidad, Cuba man sat on a steps in Havana, Cuba green and white cuban car with a little girl standing next to it cowboy walking on the pavement in Trinidad, Cuba Scene in Cuba man on the phone obscured landscape of Trinidad focusing on the boys playing football boys playing football, one of the boys have their hand up boy leaning into the camera with two boys playing football in the background five children jumping off a wall a boy playing basketball looking up at a building silhouette of a man holding some planks silhouette of a man in a green and yellow car men playing dominos in their house in Havana, Cuba man hidden behind the flag with other people around them man on a bike and a red and white cuban car in Trinidad, Cuba Cuban family in their house, man pointing and dog lying on ground young boy playing baseball hand poking out of the wall waving an orange piece of material portrait of a boy sat next to a green cuban car boy walking between the green, yellow and blue building in Havana, Cuba mechanic working on the handle four people sat on a step at midnight on Havana's Malecon man slumped on a bar in Havana, Cuba man on the phone in Havana, Cuba little boy running in the streets of Havana, Cuba man on a bike and a man standing in the building boy spinning something on his hand, football in the foreground man in cowboy hat wearing green and yellow striped vest shooting through the car window, girl walking past on her ear phones in Trinidad, Cuba man riding a bike in evening light three people wearing hats in shafts of light in Trinidad, Cuba Cuba scene in Havana man in light from above boy standing next to a blue cracked wall dynamic shot of children playing football three children on bicycles in Havana, Cuba wide shot of two children skating vegetable stall with two people silhouetted man holding two bicycle wheels against a yellow wall green car in a Cuban scene a group of men sat on the steps in the centre of Cuba silver car with a side profile of a man boy standing in a building man playing basketball at sunset on the Malecon in Havana man walking past a painting two boys sitting next to a painting with a Jamaican flag boys playing football in a yard in Havana man with a brightly coloured t shirt sat in the shade boy wearing a white t-shirt and with a cigarette in his mouth looking straight at the camera, other man pointing at the camera legs underneath a building spider-man boy hanging out with his friends in Cuba young boy sucking his thumb in the rain in Havana, Cuba red car and people in the scene man wearing a bat man t shirt staring at the camera surrounded by a crowd of people young girl surrounded by candles with two feet framing them boy holding a candle in a ceremony man with a glass next to a San Rafael sign six children playing in the sea at Havana's Malecon boys in the sea, one staring at the camera man waving at President Obama's car Pink Cuban car with two flags Cuban painting

If you’d like to purchase prints of our Cuba street photography collection or images from our other travels around the world you can visit our print shop gallery

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