Cuba, Treasured Island – Photographs by Alejandro Gortazar
Opus, Covent Garden, London
Alejandro Gortazar’s large-scale colour photographs of the remote and unspoilt regions of Cuba are suffused with sea and sky. While Cuba has been – and remains – an island of abiding interest to artists, observers and writers, it is usually because of its political, social and economic position as a communist country holding its own against the might of the United States and the encroaching power of capitalism.
The island has a rich and often problematic history, whether of the battles between the English and the Spanish in their quest to conquer new territory, the fabulous stories of fearless pirates roaming the seas or its involvement in the horrors of the slave trade. Its culture includes Habanos, the state-run cigar and tobacco industry; the renowned sugar cane crop, the seductive charms of salsa and the legendary Cuban rum.
Set against what Gortazar calls “Cuba – bastion of struggle, sacrifice, culture, nature and love”, his photographs provide a powerful image of a country where, in parts, time has stood still, where there is little to place them in the 21st century.
The Cuba that Gortazar depicts focuses on the natural beauty of his native island. With special permits, he was able to explore little-known and distant parts of the countryside, although he is drawn irresistibly to the shore and the sea. His images capture the glowing radiance of sunsets and sunrises, an enticing red-yellow sunset against pale blue or deep ultramarine skies. The sheer sense of space, the feel of natural forces, the relationship between sea and sky take on eternal qualities that time seems to have forgot.
Occasionally, built structures remind us of human activity, although this is rare, since these are largely people-free images. In Spare Tyre, an old tyre lies against a gently decaying pier, its building half falling down, long since abandoned to the forces of weather, wind and rain. Set against a rich rose-red and blue sunset (or sunrise), the composition takes on an everlasting charm.
Affirming Cuba’s role as a tropical island, palm trees move slowly in the wind, assuming on a romantic air, as in Royal Palm Trees. Even more evocative of the heat is an ancient mangrove swamp, the knurled and twisted roots surviving almost against the odds.
Gortazar, who sees himself as “the eternal hunter” in this collection of images, wants to connect the viewer with what he calls the “essential” in life – the vibrancy, peacefulness and absolute perfection of natural beauty as experienced in the island. A close-up of a group of five horses standing in the sea evokes the union of animal and nature.
One of the few images of people features a naked young child sitting on the floor outside a house, turning to look at the camera, curious but unperturbed by the photographer’s presence. It is an ageless image of contentment which reflects Gortazar’s statement that the people “may have old clothes, but they also have real happiness”. From his carefully composed photographs, they certainly have fantastic landscapes. Whether this coincides with happiness may be the subject of other images of this fascinating island.
Emmanuel Cooper
