Sunday, October 14, 2012

Leandro, El Estadio Panamericano, La Habana, Cuba, July 26, 2012

After several months out of the darkroom, the past few days have reignited my desire to print the images. Since the Cuban negatives happened to be sitting in order on my table, it made all the sense in the world to start with them. This and the fact that I'm unable to wait much longer!

Before printing I made one promise to myself, print everyone's negatives first before going back to print multiple negatives of the same person, unless two negatives of the same person happened to look great from the same roll, for ease of printing of course.

The above image is of Leandro, and was made in front of the stadium built for the Pan American Games held on 1991 in Cuba, just outside of La Habana. On my way to Alamar to photograph a couple of dancers a few years ago, the white walls of this magnificent structure caught my eyes. Since that time many of our people have followed us here happily, since it allows them to have their portraits made without the entire neighborhood watching.

On this beautiful morning, Leandro and Camila performed a special piece for us, something that they had been working on just recently and had yet to show in public. I felt honored then and even more so now to have been the recipient of their hard work, their most expressive movements.

Asked to wear darker clothing, neither one disappointed me. This they shared happened to be their preference as well. My dear friend Alejandro picked me up before six in the morning, and we headed to  Leandro's place where they were both waiting for us, on time and ready to perform. This beautiful man was humble, sensitive to our needs, courteous and most of all professional. He had only known us for twenty or so minutes and yet was able to share with us his most intimate visions.

I look forward to handing the prints to him and Camila next summer, and to doing this all over again.

Halim Ina Photography

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