My wife is from Habana and I met her in Santiago in 2000. She left the island in 1996 and never get back till summer of 2005. That was when I was able to get to Cuba with her and our 2 sons. She had not seen her father for 9 years, so it was a very touching moment when she met him in habana airport as we land.
It was my first time in Cuba and be able to leave inside my wife family it was a very strong hand in order to shoot photographs. I was acepted from the first momento as a memeber of the big family. So almost all the pics from that set of works are just phototaphs of my wife family and friend. It was a very hot summer and there was electricity cuts, but my contax never failed, even under the havy rains.
2005 It was a period of my life in wich I had just find out which kind of works I prefer to shoot: an intimate, journey inside human situation in Latin America. I was based in Chile and from there I was covering as much issues I could over the continent.
From 2003 to 2005 I had been several times in Haiti with the Chilean army, I had shot a 6 months work in the south of Chile in a little town named Lota famous for coal mine that had suddenly been closed in 1997. The miners lost their Jobs and fell down in deep depresions and alcholism. I was lucky enough to work for a megazine in Santiago named Fibra who give to me over 10 pages of spaces in order to publish my works, sometimes with my texts other with a texts of a journalist. I worked with them over 3 years till the megazine suddenly closed in 2006, and that was for me a real “gym” in wich I learned on field a lot of what I know.
My tolos, back tan, it was a mix between digital and films. Digital was not as good as now, I remember expecially over the whites that were too shining and with very low details, and some times the pics looks fakes. I was starting using PS and I really liked very much the films. My loved camera was a Contax G2, black with 28-46-90mm lens I had bought econd hand in Santiago. I just loved to shoot with it.
I used kodak film 400 pushed at 1600. The results where astonishing. The color where very saturetad stright from camera, very low noise and the posibulity to shoot in very low light. The zeiss lens had so much more details over the nikond100 with a 24mm that in Rio and Habana I just bought the Contax and 50 to 70 rolls. Beautiful! One light body, and three litle lenses. I look just like a turist and I had the chance to get really involved inside situations with my Contax over my neck and shoot just when I really feel I was part of a sitation.
