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Gallery
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CUBAN SIDE STREETS Photographs taken by Françoise Theobald and selected by Françoise and John Theobald to coincide with the article on Cuba by James Winter and Robert Everton to be found in the 'Radical Mass Media Criticism' section of this site. This is a selection from pictures taken in April 2005 in and around three Cuban towns - Havana, Santiago and Trinidad. It was our first visit to the island, and the images here are just what you see: photos which wish to generalise nothing and symbolise nothing - a series of recorded moments without pretension for you to observe in detail. From several hundred pictures, we have picked 15 which fit into the theme of 'Side Streets' and focus on those living there. It was not a pre-planned project, but a subject which emerged from looking over the collection in retrospect. The three towns featured here all attract many tourists, but we found ourselves staying with people in the side streets, a few minutes away from the well-travelled routes, and this shaped the image of the Cuba that we saw. The hospitality, colour and texture of these streets, their dwellings and inhabitants of all ages and sizes were places we kept returning to, outsiders from the rich world, with a camera. Looking back at these pictures, we experience again the intense mixture of moods and emotions that Cuba left us with. These range from its ubiquitous reminders of successive colonisations in its architectures and ethnicities, to its current tensions between revolutionary achievement and defiance, and the constant glowering proximity of the US predator; from its deep everyday frustrations (made up of constraining physical deprivations and politically determined restrictions) to its pride in manifest socialist achievements (extraordinary health, education, welfare services and environmental policies), the resilient resourcefulness of the people, and their infectious facility, despite problems, for getting the best from the moment. In our minds, all this complexity lies behind the many faces, postures and expressions in these photos: the healthy bodies framed by shabby buildings; the world of struggle (and for some even anguish) behind the smiles and the salsa; the desire for change and easier circumstances, yet the apprehension about the coming post-Fidel era. And, for most that we met, particularly those with longer memories and historical perspective, there was the dread of the stranglehold of a returning oppressor-disguised-as-liberator 90 km to the west of them, threatening them with an economic and socio-cultural dismantlement leading to a collapse comparable with that of the destitute US client state Haiti, just off their eastern coast. These are images of Cuba, 46 years on from the revolution, as it inevitably approaches the end of the Castro era. Not all of them may realise it, but surely the people of its side streets will be better off supporting their country's future development in solidarity with the wave of new progressive governments across Latin America, than subsiding into the alluring but poisoned embrace of the country occupying Guantanamo Bay, currently by far the worst abuser of human rights and dignity on Cuban soil, and prime sustainer of global inequalities. The pictures are ordered to provide images 'from cradle to grave', from portraits of young children at the beginning to images of old people at the end, all in the context of the streets and localities where they live. In between are schoolchildren and young people, and adults at work and leisure. These pictures speak for themselves; we have just added short titles. Françoise Theobald works as an artist, photographer, designer and teacher.She is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
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