Cuban Master Photographer Raúl Corrales Exhibit of Rare Hemingway and Cojimar Images at SALT Gallery

Cuba’s Master Photographer Raúl Corrales is best known for his profound images of the Cuban Revolution. But before the Revolution, Corrales embraced life in the tiny fishing village of Cojimar where Ernest Hemingway wrote of and fished for giant marlin. This rare portfolio of images—“Hemingway in Cuba”—will exhibit during the month of April at SALT Gallery in Key West. The work will be hosted by Saúl Corrales, son of the late photographer, and curated by the renowned critic and historian of Cuba’s photographic arts, Rafael Acosta. A special preview and reception will be held from 6pm-8pm on Saturday, April 1 at SALT Gallery’s 830 Fleming Street location.

“No photographer has ever been as connected to the blue water between Cuba and Key West as Raúl Corrales,” says SALT Gallery owner Jeffrey Cardenas. “While Ernest Hemingway was writing The Old Man and the Sea, the novella that would elevate his status to Nobel Laureate, Corrales was quietly documenting the author and that remarkable period of history in Cojimar, Cuba when men still caught big fish mano a mano.”

Though his home and family was in the seafaring community of Cojimar, Corrales traveled throughout the island as a working photojournalist. It was a matter of good fortune that he should happen to photograph Hemingway, who Corrales first knew as a first-rate fisherman and unconventional American and only later as the famed writer that he was. It was his appearance that caught his eye, and Corrales would later take images of both Hemingway and his fisherman friend Anselmo Hernandez, the Cuban fisherman who inspired The Old Man and the Sea. The SALT Gallery exhibit is a compelling documentary and a rare opportunity for fine art collectors, Cuban history and Hemingway buffs, and photography enthusiasts alike.

Some images reveal Hemingway in all his bravado— pistol in air, gestures wild with animation, longing gazes towards the sea—all captured in the one day Hemingway invited Corrales aboard Pilar for a photo essay. Other photographs capture the everlasting atmosphere of Cojimar and the sense of Hemingway’s words:  an old man mending nets or leaning over the stern of his skiff, a crowd of fishermen holding up a huge blue marlin. His ability to analogue what he saw before him with a sweeping lyricism filled with unusual angles, perspectives, balanced composition, and a sculpture-like feel of light and shadow punctuates the subject with emotion.

The photography of Corrales, according to curator Acosta, “stands out for it’s impeccable technique and the poetry emanating from the images,”

Although a photographer of prestige during the Revolution and serving as one of Fidel Castro’s official photographers and following his rise to power in 1959, Corrales remained true to the Cuban people, showing how the homeless and poor–farmers in the mountains, charcoal makers in the marshes, sugar-cane cutters, and miners—lived and died. His work was driven by a simple maxim: “I look and I see.”

Corrales worked as director for 25 years in Cuba’s Office of Historical Affairs, helping to preserve and organize the revolution’s documentary and photographic legacy before retiring in 1991. He died in his home April 2006 at the age of 81, his life’s work recognized by national and international awards, including the National Visual Arts Prize in 1996, the highest to which a Cuban visual artist can aspire.

His work can be found in collections such as at the Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, Universidad de Parma, Italy; the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and the Ryanson College Gallery of Arts, Ottawa, Canada. In Cuba, his work is exhibited at Casa de las Américas in Havana and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.

“It is an enormous honor to be able to exhibit the work of Raúl Corrales at SALT Gallery,” says Cardenas.

 Gallery owner Jeffrey Cardenas features a new artist each month at SALT Gallery; Corrales’ work will remain on display until May 4. For more information, call 305.896.2980 or visit SALTGalleryKeyWest.com.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]