Findlay’s Streets of Havana delight at Lemonade Stand

By Hal Bromm

Paul Findlay’s fine collection of beautiful photographs will transport you to Key West’s nearby Caribbean neighbor and the handsome architecture and street life of its capital, Havana.  Aiming to capture Havana’s residents who “struggle to survive on a daily basis,” Findlay brings us images of daily life “as seen through the lens of a visitor.”

 

 

The show opened Jan. 3 and runs through Jan. 31 at Lemonade Stand Art Studio.

 

 

Last year Findlay visited Cuba for the first time in the company of Beth Boone, director of The Miami Light Project, who is also his cousin.  “Beth is married to the number one hip-hop artist in Cuba, Yrak Saenz of Doble Filo. We were able to travel freely and the voyage was very educational as we were able to spend time with members of Beth’s Cuban family,” Findlay said. He found Cuba,  especially Havana, to be a photographer’s paradise, and his photos capture the city’s elegant, crumbling architecture, lushly beautiful even in its decay. He recalls “wandering the streets of Havana Vieja, where one can catch glimpses of its former grandeur.” The city’s architecture, markets and busy streets – traveled by classic 1950s American automobiles — are all on display here in sharp and engaging detail.

 

 

It is a pleasure to savor photographs so exquisitely printed, their fine resolution and saturated, brilliant colors capturing a place and culture few Americans know. Ranging from street games to broad harbor panoramas and landscapes, Findlay’s images are sometimes inquisitive, occasionally mysterious (who is that man in the window and why is he staring so intently at us?) but always hugely satisfying. To savor Havana’s life through these unstudied compositions brings viewers closer than the 90 miles separating Key West and Cuba would normally permit.

 

 

At 14 Findlay built his first darkroom in the bathroom of his family home. He has not looked back. His extensive travels have afforded the opportunity to see other cultures through his camera lens, seeking the life rhythm of a place through its residents and their daily lives. His photographs characteristically bring us close to the spirit and character of a foreign city and the people who inhabit it, as did his images of France, recently featured in an exhibition at the Studios of Key West. Seeing Havana through his eyes will give viewers a sense of this nearby but utterly un-American city, miraculously untouched by our consumerist culture.

 

 

Lemonade Stand Art Studio is located at 318 Petronia St. between Thomas and Whitehead. Viewing hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. Till 4 p.m. For further information phone (434) 227-9988 or (504) 609-3584.

— Hal Bromm

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