New York photographer Tria Jovan traveled to Cuba more than ten times in the early 1990s and took over 25,000 pictures, creating a multi-layered and direct portrait of Liberty Island.
Tria Giovan is an avid traveler who grew up on the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. A young photographer from New York, she decided to go to Cuba to document in detail and comprehensively the life of a country experiencing a severe economic depression. With the collapse of the USSR, it lost financial and diplomatic support, entering a protracted “special period” marked by a difficult energy and food situation.
But Jovan didn’t go because of politics. She went to Cuba as an objective observer, becoming interested in this relatively isolated country. It all started with a one-time trip organized by the Center for Cuban Studies, but then 11 trips followed, which lasted for months and were repeated for six years.
During this time, Jovan took about 25,000 pictures, 100 of which appeared on the pages of the book “Cuba: the Elusive Island”, published in 1996 by Harry N. Abrams.
For a long time, the rest of the images were stored as negatives. 25 years after her first trip to Cuba, Jovan revised her originals and created a digital archive of more than 450 images. Looking into them, everyone was able to look back in time, to see the country in its former guise. The author published the photo album “Archive of Cuba” only in 2018. It won the award at the International Photography Award 2018 as the best documentary book.
Delving into the history, literature and politics of the country, Tria noted:
“Observing the extraordinary changes was stimulating and informative, as well as disheartening and disturbing. Despite the often melancholic backgrounds, I was attracted to the subtleties and layered difficulties of everyday Cuba. The cut-off and isolated country seemed to preserve the cultural integrity, social structures and ephemera of the Cuban Revolution while its architectural heritage and infrastructure crumbled. Despite these difficulties, the Cuban people had an amazing spirit and resourcefulness.”
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