The magazine of the photo-essay
Sept 2016 back issue
by Carolina Sandretto
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Cuba has lived under American embargo for 64 years. The recent Obama administration is still far from affecting the
daily lives of the people of Cuba. Living conditions, due to the embargo, have been extremely difficult for the population.
The regime provides for education and food but people have been obliged to live in the same houses as their families
as they have not been allowed or had the means to buy or construct new ones.
During the last six decades people have taken over old houses, once belonging to people now gone or deceased and
transformed them into ‘Solar’. A Solar is a multifamily and multicultural entity that represents the layers and the
complexity of contemporary Cuban society and creates a particular, perculiar habitat. Solars are often inhabited by as
many as 30 different families. Lodged in small tiny apartments that were once rooms, all ages, from young families to
the elderly cohabit with almost no privacy.
Through a series of portraits taken with a medium format camera, Sandretto documents the Solar, hoping to see a
positive change in the near future.
