Cuban trilogy

For nearly a quarter of a century, Ernesto Bazan documented daily life in Cuba. The Cuban Trilogy, presented at the Fort Institute of Photography Gallery since March 16, consists of three photographic cycles, each reflecting in a different way the Italian artist’s relationship with a country that – first visited years ago – became his second home.

The selection of nearly 70 photographs is opened by Cuba Bazan, a series realized during the period of unrest associated with the collapse of the communist bloc, termed by Fidel Castro as El Periodo Especial. The Al Campo cycle, created after the author’s decision to settle permanently on the island and start a family, is a tribute to the simple life in the countryside. The culmination of the process of eliminating the political in favor of the private and universal are the works from the latest cycle, titled Isla. Among them are intimate portraits, as well as panoramic landscapes and still lifes.

The poetics of Bazan’s photography evolved over nearly three decades of work. Starting from black-and-white, raw documents of poverty following the fall of the Soviet Union, the author eventually experimented with the use of color, to consciously use it in – as he defines them – meditations on the island’s landscapes. The transformations of form in Ernesto’s work were accompanied by a gradual differentiation of themes, among which there is less political anecdote and more introspection and a sense of belonging.