Home Front cover PHOTO ESSAYS LIFE FORCE
The magazine of the photo-essay
December 2016 issue
The Cubans
by Jay Seldin
A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous! Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
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The Wedding Car.
Jesus and Dominos.
Super Hero.
Body Shaving.
RCA Victor.
Che Walkers.
Stairway to the Top.
Between Rounds.
Baseball by the Sea.
Brothers.
Living Under a Cement Block Interior.
Sleeping Resident.
Auto Mechanic.
Dance Studio Rehersal.
Santeria Fortune Teller.
Cooks Living Quarters, Hersey.
Bus 545.
Jay Seldin’s multi-layered photographs of Cuba give an intimate view of everyday life on the island; they are both works of art but also a vicarious journey for the viewer. They reveal Cubans as they are, far beyond the clichés and poses. His work involves great patience. He goes beyond the stereotypical scene many photographers would capture, connecting with the people, listening to their stories and creating the rapport that is so palpable in his work. The omnipresent symbols of Cuba are here. In the backgrounds are slogans and figures from the Revolution, some all but disregarded by the younger generation. Here too is the ever-present Cuban flag, an identity symbol battered but not broken. Yet the foregrounds reveal another Cuba, layered on top. The photographs capture the two Cubas’, old and new, as they inevitably collide. Reminiscent of Robert Frank in more ways than simply the title, The Cubans is a beautiful, bittersweet vignette of my island and its people.
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