Cuba Street Photography: Post 1: Five men just hanging

I’ve just got back from a trip to Cuba, a country I’ve been desperate to visit for sometime. Over ten years ago I travelled around South and Central America and fell in love with all things Latin American – the language, the music, the dancing, and the people. Cuba has all this and then it’s own interesting and controversial history. It lived up to and exceeded every expectation I had. The people, with their laid back warmth, were what really made it though.

It was also a photographer’s dream. When doing street photography I don’t like to feel I am “stealing” images, sneaking around and tricking people into having their pictures taken. But in many countries, street photography is not very welcome (The UK probably being one of the worst for this!). As someone who doesn’t particularly like the thought of appearing in someone else’s holiday snaps I sympathise (Whilst also acknowledging this is somewhat hypocritical!). But as a photographer I see the world through my lens (as my husband will attest to!) In Cuba the people not only gave me an acknowledging nod of “yes I’m ok with you and your camera” when I would give them a wee smile and point at my camera, but as if by magic they would  then proceed to just carry on with what they were doing with not a pose in sight – well, if you’ve ever tried street photography you will know this feels like a blessing! (I guess I shouldn’t really tell you this, perhaps I should be making out it’s dead hard!)

So, I thought I’d share a few of my images. I’ve started the editing process but have a lot more to get through in between client work  so I think I’ll share a few at a time. Hopefully you’ll want to come back for more!

Enjoy and as always, please do tell me which are your favourites!

Cx