Cuba

Paolo Gasparini

1961–65 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

When Paolo Gasparini came to Havana in 1961, he had to rethink his approach to photography. After Fidel Castro's siezure of power, “the speed of social and cultural events in Cuba made me change my camera,” he later explained. Swapping his larger-format reflex cameras for a nimble 35mm, Gasparini distanced himself from the spare, architectural compositions of his early career and turned his lens to the streets of a city rollicking with post-revolutionary fervor. Here, a crowd of commuters spills onto a Havana street, where buses queue into the distance. The congestion speaks to the historic city’s growing pains at a moment of rapid urbanization. Reaching out of windows and massing around a modern façade, young Cubans test the limits of city infrastructure.

Artist

Paolo Gasparini

Date

1961–65

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2019