Since 1992, I’ve been
photographing the transitional time referred to by Fidel Castro as El
Periodo Especial. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the long
standing unjust American embargo still in place, the country was sent
reeling towards an uncertain future, leaving Cubans to face dire hardships
and harrowing changes.
My project explores how the island is struggling to maintain its socialist’
identity in a post-communist world, and how Cubans still retain remarkable
reserves of inner strength and a profound sense of dignity no matter
what.
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Born in Palermo, Sicily, currently
residing in both Brooklyn, N.Y., and Havana, Cuba, Ernesto Bazan has been
photographing the changing lives of Cubans since the collapse of the Soviet
Union. He wins many photographic prizes wich includes among others a grant
from the Mother Jones Foundation for Photojournalism (1995); two grants
from the New York Foundation for the Arts (1996, 2000); first prize in
the daily life story category at the World Press Photo competion (1996);
two fellowships, one from the Alicia Patterson Foundation (1997) and the
Guggenheim Foundation (2000); the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize (1997);
the W. Eugene Smith grant (1998); a grant from the Fund for Investigative
Journalism (2000).