What may have common and different an old American man and a Cuban teenager? How could their looks match and be different of the world, and especially of the people, and how they would see them? The answers to these questions will take shape on July 10, 11 and 12, when the photographic project How we see you takes place.
Its creator is Jeffrey Cardenas, a descendant of Cuban photographer who lives in Key West. If we had to find a definition for Cardenas we would call him a pretty restless wanderer. Not only has he walked half the planet working for media outlets like The New York Times and Associated Press, he doesn’t just take photos of the Caribbean vegetation with the passion of scholar but often risks going into artistic photography.
In his regular visits to Havana he was struck to discover that the Cubans had a way of looking at foreigners and another to observe their countrymen. The fact seemed so curious that he wants to know if this phenomenon goes beyond the question of nationality, if such individual interpretation is infinite and infinite are the ways in which human nature is expressed.
And that is why, accompanied by the young and talented Yanela Piñeiro, he will portray any passer passing through the vicinity of the site of the Library of Cuba in the Old Square, Old havana, who wants to be photographed. During 3 days, Cardenas and Piñeiro, equipped with two identical cameras, lenses and lighting, will take photos of participants in an outdoor studio, with the intention of seeing how those looks of recognition of the other vary.
The end result will be a presentation of 18 leaflets in black and white, twelve of which are labeled with their respective author. The other six will be free for the spectator to play to fill in the blanks, to try to find the silver lining of the difference and the essence of that is identity.
