Selections from “Tierra Guajira”, “Sunset”, and “Foto Ciudad”
About Raul:
Raúl Cañibano Ercilla is based in Havana as an advertising photographer. Born in 1961, his work focuses on people and demonstrates the vitality of modern-day Cuban photography. He has exhibited worldwide and won a major prize in Cuba for a project on the life of rural workers.
‘My photography is about people – connecting with them and showing their everyday lives. Cuba is fantastic for documentary photography and each week I thank God for my life. If I have any ambition at all, it is to be a member of an agency like Magnum, but only if I can live in Cuba forever.’
Cuban photographer Raúl Cañibano Ercilla was born in 1961. One of the younger generations of photographers born after the Revolution, his work focuses on people, everyday life, history and socialism. He is currently based in Havana where he works as an advertising photographer.
In 1993, he had his first solo exhibition, ‘Lonely Hunter’ at the Fototeca de Cuba. Since then his work has been shown in a number of exhibitions in Cuba as well as in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, the USA, Spain, Greece, Italy, Belgium, and Japan. He has been featured in various publications, both at home and abroad. In 1999 he won the Grand Prix in the Cuban National Photography Exhibit for his project, ´Tierra Guajira´ (Country Land), concentrating on the life of rural workers.
Peter Marshall, in an essay on Cuban photography on the www.photography.about.com website, describes his work. ‘A series of his work on Havana makes great use of bringing together parts of a scene that somehow don´t belong. The shadow of an equestrian statue on a wall ends at its top, headless and riderless. Above the wall, a number of slender modern street lamps poke up into the sky. Another picture shows an interior almost completely filled by a TV set, and the view past this and out of a window onto some steps up into a house. At the top of these, a child hangs, suspended from the arms of an adult who is swinging it in midair.’
Ercilla was one of eleven photographers selected for the ‘Cuba, Si! Cuba, Seen!’ retrospective of 50 years of Cuban photography at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2000. He is amongst the top photographers in Cuba, recognized, published and exhibited internationally, including in Cuba, United States, England, France, Norway, Australia, Japan and Spain, amongst others. His work is part of the Collection at the International Center of Photography in New York.
His website is raulfoto.visura.co
Kent Krugh is a fine art photographer living in Cincinnati.
kentkrugh.com
