The photo exhibit Los Musicos en Cuba, the initial visual arts component of The Jazz Gallery's 10th Anniversary Season, opens on Tuesday, September 6, 2005, with a reception from 6:00 -8:00 PM. The show brings together the work of three dedicated photographers - two Cuban and one American - who, in recent years, have focused their talents on portraying musicians in Cuba.
The biographical notes below briefly trace the individual journeys that led to their photos being displayed in The Jazz Gallery. However before considering how each of them arrived here, it is worth looking at conditions they have in common that both enliven and constrain their work.
It is impossible to consider the content of this show without mentioning two compelling factors: 1) the extremely powerful role music plays in Cuban culture and 2) the US government’s embargo of Cuba with its attendant travel ban and visa restrictions.
Regarding the first point: Cuban music and its cultural context define, as well as anything on our planet, the full spectrum of impassioned human creativity and lend to the people of this multiply-beleaguered island an ability to believe that the valiant spirit conveyed in their music -- so thoroughly suffused throughout the culture—holds the promise of salvation, never more so than today. The depths of this truth can be more fully explored in the works of such otherwise diverse figures as anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, writer Alejandro Carpentier, musician Dizzy Gillespie and music historian Ned Sublette.
With regard to the second point, one also needs to realize that recent policies enacted by the current American administration have further hindered the natural inclination of artists to follow their hearts down paths that transcend national boundaries. The embargo’s consequences affect virtually every level of this exhibition, ranging from the artists’ choice of subject matter to the manner in which their images are conserved and displayed.
The American photographer, David Garten, is clearly drawn to those many Cuban musicians who have never appeared -- and may never be able to appear -- in the United States. Thus his images are almost exclusively of Cuban musicians performing or otherwise appearing in their home settings. On the other hand, the Cubans Ernesto Dos Santos and Leslie Sinclair, while justly proud of their com-patriots, are fascinated by the appearance on their island of artists to whom they normally have no access. Therefore, their work often concentrates on portraying American artists performing in Cuba like Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton and others featured in this show. Finally, how the images are physically presented is another consideration entirely. Options available to Cuban photographers to mount, mat and frame their work are quite different from those available to photographers based in the US. Thus, while artistic material may be transported under the terms of the embargo, its transmission is heavily constrained in a variety of ways, not the least of which is financial.
In the end, the many constraints that dwell in the gulf between Cuba and America serve to test the mettle and measure the depth of commitment of all artists whose aspirations -- explicit or implied -- are to bridge that gulf. The quality of work displayed by the three photographers in this exhibit suc-ceeds in the face of these constraints and reminds us of the insight voiced some time ago by Valerie Wilmer, that music like this is “…as serious as your life.”
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
ERNESTO DOS SANTOS (b. La Habana, 1970) Exposed to a rich cultural world throughout his childhood and the recipient of a solid education, including a university degree, as a photographer Ernesto Dos Santos is largely self-taught. While pursuing his long-standing passion for ocean sports – and serving as a licensed Scuba diving instructor – Dos Santos began learning photography with an underwater camera given to him by a friend. Shooting in color, he found immediate satisfaction in his early underwater work and started compiling an impressive portfolio of images that have appeared -- and continue to appear -- in publications like Bitacora and in Havana’s National Museum of Natural History. Once he was at ease with the technical aspects of cameras and realized he had a knack for capturing images, it wasn’t long before Dos Santos applied his expanding skills to another one of his passions: live musical performance. He has been working as a freelance photographer since 1998, and in recent years has caught the public’s eye on the strength of a number of striking black and white images of jazz musicians performing in public venues in and around Havana. In both 2002 and 2004 he won First Prize in the Jazz Photo Contest sponsored by the Cuban Institute of Music and The Society of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). His photos have appeared in Rolling Stone (Spanish edition), Salsa Cubana and Prisma Internacional, among other publications, and he has had exhibitions at a number of galleries and public spaces both in Havana and Santo Domingo.
DAVID GARTEN (b. New York City, 1954) Born and raised in New York, David Garten moved to Vermont shortly after completing his undergraduate education at New York University, (BFA, 1977, Film & Television). He has owned and run his own photo lab there since that time, supporting himself primarily as a wedding photographer. Since 1994 Garten has traveled frequently to Cuba and his images have been published in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers in North America, Europe and Japan, including Jazziz, JazzTimes, Drum, Latin Beat, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Village Voice and Toronto Globe & Mail. His work has also appeared in a number of books and on the CBS News magazine Sixty Minutes II. In addition, his photos have been shown in a range of galleries across the US and Canada as well as in Cuba where his most recent exhibit, in late 2004, was part of the 19th International Havana Ballet Festival. Garten’s images in the present exhibit give some idea of how determined he has been to seek out both the most important of the eldest generation of Cuban musicians many of whom -- like Compay Segundo, Merceditas Valdes and Lazaro Ross -- are sadly no longer with us, as well as some of the country’s most significant younger artists now breaking through to broader international recognition like Miguel “Anga” Diaz and Ramon Valle. Regarding his work Garten observes, “I was a frustrated musician, but now I’m a fulfilled photographer.”
LESLIE SINCLAIR (b. La Habana, 1976) The youngest of the three photographers in this show, Leslie Sinclair grew up in Havana’s lively cultural milieu as part of a family whose members were regularly in touch with all manner of artists, filmmakers and archivists. Although he did not receive an extensive formal education, Leslie has benefited from numerous workshops in black and white photography offered by institutions like the Centro Nacional de Periodismo Jose Marti. Since the late ‘90’s, Sinclair has been a ubiquitous figure on the live music scene in Havana and has worked regularly with the magazine Salsa Cubana, that first published his work, as well as with an expanding list of international publications like Jazz Magazine (France), The Guardian and The Times (UK). Since 1998 his work has appeared in a wide variety of galleries and public expositions in Havana, Washington D.C. and—in the summer of 2005—Arles, France. Like his contemporary Ernesto Dos Santos, Sinclair’s work has received awards from the Jazz Photo Contest sponsored by Cuba’s Society of Writers and Artists. Many of his best jazz pieces are part of the permanent collections of, and on display in, Havana’s two premier jazz venues -- La Zorra y el Cuervo and Jazz Café. As some of his images in the present exhibit reveal, Sinclair is adept not only at capturing telling portraits and peak bandstand moments, but has a great eye for what might be called “jazz atmospherics.”
Dale Fitzgerald / The Jazz Gallery / August 2005
The Jazz Gallery is located at 290 Hudson Street (below Spring), in lower Manhattan and can be reached by the IRT #1 train to Houston Street or the IND C or E trains to Spring Street. This event is free and open to the general public.
The Jazz Gallery's performances are supported, in part, by a grant from The New York State Council on the Arts – Presenting Program, and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with additional support for general programming & 10th anniversary activities provided by:
Meet The Composer, The American Music Center, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, The National Endowment for the Arts & The Rockefeller Foundation
The biographical notes below briefly trace the individual journeys that led to their photos being displayed in The Jazz Gallery. However before considering how each of them arrived here, it is worth looking at conditions they have in common that both enliven and constrain their work.
It is impossible to consider the content of this show without mentioning two compelling factors: 1) the extremely powerful role music plays in Cuban culture and 2) the US government’s embargo of Cuba with its attendant travel ban and visa restrictions.
Regarding the first point: Cuban music and its cultural context define, as well as anything on our planet, the full spectrum of impassioned human creativity and lend to the people of this multiply-beleaguered island an ability to believe that the valiant spirit conveyed in their music -- so thoroughly suffused throughout the culture—holds the promise of salvation, never more so than today. The depths of this truth can be more fully explored in the works of such otherwise diverse figures as anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, writer Alejandro Carpentier, musician Dizzy Gillespie and music historian Ned Sublette.
With regard to the second point, one also needs to realize that recent policies enacted by the current American administration have further hindered the natural inclination of artists to follow their hearts down paths that transcend national boundaries. The embargo’s consequences affect virtually every level of this exhibition, ranging from the artists’ choice of subject matter to the manner in which their images are conserved and displayed.
The American photographer, David Garten, is clearly drawn to those many Cuban musicians who have never appeared -- and may never be able to appear -- in the United States. Thus his images are almost exclusively of Cuban musicians performing or otherwise appearing in their home settings. On the other hand, the Cubans Ernesto Dos Santos and Leslie Sinclair, while justly proud of their com-patriots, are fascinated by the appearance on their island of artists to whom they normally have no access. Therefore, their work often concentrates on portraying American artists performing in Cuba like Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton and others featured in this show. Finally, how the images are physically presented is another consideration entirely. Options available to Cuban photographers to mount, mat and frame their work are quite different from those available to photographers based in the US. Thus, while artistic material may be transported under the terms of the embargo, its transmission is heavily constrained in a variety of ways, not the least of which is financial.
In the end, the many constraints that dwell in the gulf between Cuba and America serve to test the mettle and measure the depth of commitment of all artists whose aspirations -- explicit or implied -- are to bridge that gulf. The quality of work displayed by the three photographers in this exhibit suc-ceeds in the face of these constraints and reminds us of the insight voiced some time ago by Valerie Wilmer, that music like this is “…as serious as your life.”
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
ERNESTO DOS SANTOS (b. La Habana, 1970) Exposed to a rich cultural world throughout his childhood and the recipient of a solid education, including a university degree, as a photographer Ernesto Dos Santos is largely self-taught. While pursuing his long-standing passion for ocean sports – and serving as a licensed Scuba diving instructor – Dos Santos began learning photography with an underwater camera given to him by a friend. Shooting in color, he found immediate satisfaction in his early underwater work and started compiling an impressive portfolio of images that have appeared -- and continue to appear -- in publications like Bitacora and in Havana’s National Museum of Natural History. Once he was at ease with the technical aspects of cameras and realized he had a knack for capturing images, it wasn’t long before Dos Santos applied his expanding skills to another one of his passions: live musical performance. He has been working as a freelance photographer since 1998, and in recent years has caught the public’s eye on the strength of a number of striking black and white images of jazz musicians performing in public venues in and around Havana. In both 2002 and 2004 he won First Prize in the Jazz Photo Contest sponsored by the Cuban Institute of Music and The Society of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). His photos have appeared in Rolling Stone (Spanish edition), Salsa Cubana and Prisma Internacional, among other publications, and he has had exhibitions at a number of galleries and public spaces both in Havana and Santo Domingo.
DAVID GARTEN (b. New York City, 1954) Born and raised in New York, David Garten moved to Vermont shortly after completing his undergraduate education at New York University, (BFA, 1977, Film & Television). He has owned and run his own photo lab there since that time, supporting himself primarily as a wedding photographer. Since 1994 Garten has traveled frequently to Cuba and his images have been published in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers in North America, Europe and Japan, including Jazziz, JazzTimes, Drum, Latin Beat, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Village Voice and Toronto Globe & Mail. His work has also appeared in a number of books and on the CBS News magazine Sixty Minutes II. In addition, his photos have been shown in a range of galleries across the US and Canada as well as in Cuba where his most recent exhibit, in late 2004, was part of the 19th International Havana Ballet Festival. Garten’s images in the present exhibit give some idea of how determined he has been to seek out both the most important of the eldest generation of Cuban musicians many of whom -- like Compay Segundo, Merceditas Valdes and Lazaro Ross -- are sadly no longer with us, as well as some of the country’s most significant younger artists now breaking through to broader international recognition like Miguel “Anga” Diaz and Ramon Valle. Regarding his work Garten observes, “I was a frustrated musician, but now I’m a fulfilled photographer.”
LESLIE SINCLAIR (b. La Habana, 1976) The youngest of the three photographers in this show, Leslie Sinclair grew up in Havana’s lively cultural milieu as part of a family whose members were regularly in touch with all manner of artists, filmmakers and archivists. Although he did not receive an extensive formal education, Leslie has benefited from numerous workshops in black and white photography offered by institutions like the Centro Nacional de Periodismo Jose Marti. Since the late ‘90’s, Sinclair has been a ubiquitous figure on the live music scene in Havana and has worked regularly with the magazine Salsa Cubana, that first published his work, as well as with an expanding list of international publications like Jazz Magazine (France), The Guardian and The Times (UK). Since 1998 his work has appeared in a wide variety of galleries and public expositions in Havana, Washington D.C. and—in the summer of 2005—Arles, France. Like his contemporary Ernesto Dos Santos, Sinclair’s work has received awards from the Jazz Photo Contest sponsored by Cuba’s Society of Writers and Artists. Many of his best jazz pieces are part of the permanent collections of, and on display in, Havana’s two premier jazz venues -- La Zorra y el Cuervo and Jazz Café. As some of his images in the present exhibit reveal, Sinclair is adept not only at capturing telling portraits and peak bandstand moments, but has a great eye for what might be called “jazz atmospherics.”
Dale Fitzgerald / The Jazz Gallery / August 2005
The Jazz Gallery is located at 290 Hudson Street (below Spring), in lower Manhattan and can be reached by the IRT #1 train to Houston Street or the IND C or E trains to Spring Street. This event is free and open to the general public.
The Jazz Gallery's performances are supported, in part, by a grant from The New York State Council on the Arts – Presenting Program, and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with additional support for general programming & 10th anniversary activities provided by:
Meet The Composer, The American Music Center, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, The National Endowment for the Arts & The Rockefeller Foundation
For more information contact All About Jazz.
