Synopsis
Tria Giovan first traveled to Cuba in 1990. She returned 12 times over the next 6 years, shooting over 25,000 images. Immersing herself in Cuba's history, literature and politics, Giovan photographed interiors of homes and businesses, city streets, landscapes and, most of all, the people, creating a compelling body of work that captured the subtleties and layered complexities of day-to-day life in Cuba. Twenty years after the publication of her first book of Cuban photographs, Cuba: The Elusive Island , Giovan has returned to these images, rediscovering in them a record of a Cuba that no longer exists. Tria Giovan: The Cuba Archive selects 120 of these images, many of which have never before been shown. Giovan reveals Cuba at a pivotal point in its fascinating history and bears witness to an inimitable, resilient and complex country and people. Raised in the Caribbean, New York-based photographer Tria Giovan (born 1961) has published her work in Aperture , Esquire , Harpers , Travel & Leisure and Vogue , among many other publications. Her most recent monograph, Sand, Sea, Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack , was published by Damiani in 2011. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum and the New York Public Library, among others. Photographs from The Cuba Archive will be featured in a 2017-18 exhibition on Cuba at the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles., Tria Giovan first traveled to Cuba in 1990. Over the next six years she took twelve month-long trips, traversing the island numerous times, and making over 25,000 images. Immersing herself in Cuba's history, literature and politics, she photographed interiors of homes and businesses, city streets, rural landscapes, signs and billboards, and, most of all, the people, creating a compelling body of work that captures the subtleties and layered complexities of day-to-day Cuba born from complete engagement and informed perspective. Cuba The Elusive Island published by Harry N. Abrams in 1996-a collector's item-first brought together 100 of these images, along with a selection of writings by some of Cuba's most important writers. Twenty years later, Giovan re-edited the images, while working to preserve the original 6 x 9 color negatives. Through this intensive re-examination, a new more complex view of the historical significance of this work has emerged. Images previously disregarded or missed now stand out as a record of elements that no longer exist and one of a Cuba poised on the brink of change. The 120 selected images featured in The Cuba Archive , many of which have never been shown, reveal Cuba at a pivotal point in its storied and fascinating history, and bear witness to an inimitable, resilient and complex country and people.
