New Photobook Shows You What Havana Really Looks Like Now
Havana Youth, the
debut photobook by Washington, DC–based photographer Greg Kahn, shines a light
on the new Havana - feisty, sexy, alive, and evolving. It’s a stark contrast to
the place stuck in time, as so many Americans have come to know Cuba. Kahn
reveals a vibrant city living in and for the moment. Needless to say, with
Kahn’s book, you’re not getting the same well-trodden images of vintage
American cars, women hanging out of colorful windows, and old men rolling
cigars. His luscious images dismiss those stereotypes and instead put a
new, young Cuba on full display. Kahn’s Havana Youth, published
by Yoffy Press, focuses on a
generation whose world has been infused with American and European culture
seeping through technological cracks—like MP3s of the latest American music
sold on thumbdrives.
“When I was talking to
these people,” Kahn tells Mother Jones, “they were so sick of this
idea of what people perceived Cuba to be, with the old Cuban clothing, the
cigars. This generation doesn’t have the attachment to that. When I showed them
images, they were like, ‘You get it. You’re not photographing us like we’re in
a fishbowl. This feels like it comes from us. This feels like who we are.'”
You might say the
project found Kahn. While on a trip reporting on changes in Cuba in 2012, a
few years before former President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations
with the island, he followed the sound of loud bass rumbling through the
streets. It led him to a concert in a plaza.
“There were throngs of
people dancing and raving, just having a good time. It was all music I
recognized, music that was popular at the time in the US. That’s where it
dawned on me that the generation adapting to the new regulations was going to
have the country evolve in a direction they want,” he says. Kahn thought,
“‘That’s the project I can dive into, beyond the topical news coverage of the
day.'”In six trips made over
four years, Kahn’s access to the youth culture got deeper and deeper... read more: