Cajón Photography in Cuba
Cuba has a great amount of wonderful curiosities. That is the case of the cajón photography, marvel that seems to be taken out from a very, very old book of stories to be shown in a century of advanced technology.
Such a wonder has an extra value in Havana. Those people who visit its capitol have the possibility of been photographed before the staircase of this colossal building. There, some photographs are ready for taking a good picture of you with nothing less than a cajón camera.
This device always draws the attention of foreign visitors who immediately want to be photographed for taking the picture to their countries as a souvenir of having enjoyed a sort of journey to the past without using a time machine.
It is a real Cuban feast the fact of personally living such an experience, talking with the owners of the old cameras -real museum pieces, as well as taking a look to their good working order and the way their owners keep them alive, working.
The photographers of this kind of cameras are a real big shot. Carrying an antique camera, they position themselves in front of the staircase of the capitol of Havana. It is an invitation for people passing by for been photographed. They also use this place because it is crowded all the time.
Champions of the image, they seem a modern Don Quixote trying to preserve mills of light and colour in the time of cutting-edge technology, powerful plane trips among other advances of science. Nevertheless, these artists -somehow they are, succeed with their old apparatus.
Every day more and more visitors choose this site for making new friends, for been photographed or taking some pictures with their modern digital cameras, or just for fraternizing with these photographers that try to present old cameras as an innovation whose epoch has really gone away.
Still fresh, those times of technological introductions during the 1900-1918 intervals of various devices characterized by having springs and long legs of their tripods. At that time, these apparatuses were in vogue all over the world.
However, people may see these devices -well preserved and real museum pieces, now in the hands of persons who most of the time do not know the history of photography. Nevertheless, they are part of it.
Nonetheless, in Havana as well as in some other cities around the Island, cajón photography is still a luxurious activity, an artistic expression with unique features widespread with the purpose of promoting tourism using a very particular method: giving poetry.
In general terms, cajón photographers of these days are old persons probably nostalgic for a city of streetcars, theatres showing comedies, and demure clothes in contrast with today’s fashion of short clothes and almost-uncovered women.
Such a simple person is the cajón photographer: symbol, part and counterpart of an image worth to remember or to take home. Graphic essence of the silhouette of the architecture of other times, symbol that just hides in a click!
About the Author
San Cristobal UK is a Tailor-Made Cuba holiday specialist and has a vast experience in organizing holidays to Cuba. This is one of a series of articles devoted to promote the Cuban Culture and to give information on what to do and see in your Holidays to Cuba.
|
|
Passenger liner Titanic (Br, 1912) Oceanic Steam Nav Co Ltd, (Ismay Photo Mugs …. |
|
|
Metagama (1915) Photo Mugs The passenger liner Metagama (1915) underway; a view of the starboard side of the ship from forward of broadside. This is a copy negative made by Bedford Lemere a Co.; the original photographer is unknown….. |
|
|
3 masted barque Queen of the East (1853) at Moss Photo Mugs …. |
|
|
VIGGO MORTENSEN: SKOVBO $45.00 … |
|
|
The Roots of California Photography: The Monterey Legacy $25.00 … |
|
|
Orsay: Painting, Sculpture, Objects of Art, Photography, Architecture $89.99 This overview of the extensive collection of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris includes paintings by Daumier, Delacroix, Corot, Millet, Courbet, Renoir, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, van Gogh, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gaugin, and many others. In addition, selections of sculpture, photography, objets d’art, and architecture are presented…. |
|
|
Images: 150 Years of Photography – The Magic Mirror $250.00 The producers of this program trace the lineage of photography as art and present a glorious parade of great photographs drawn from the great museum collections of the world…. |
|
|
Quakehold! 66111 2-Ounce Museum Wax $3.00 Use this for wood and pottery objects on high shelves and in hard to get to locations where they are not likely to be moved often. This is a specially blended formula of microcrystalline waxes used by museums for antiquities and is best for most wood. Easy to use, applies in seconds, non-drying, non-toxic, completely removable and reusable…. |
|
|
Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals – Missile on Display at Alamogordo Space Museum, New Mexico. – Removable Graphic WallMonkeys wall graphics are printed on the highest quality re-positionable, self-adhesive fabric paper. Each order is printed in-house and on-demand. WallMonkeys uses premium materials & state-of-the-art production technologies. Our white fabric material is superior to vinyl decals. You can literally see and feel the difference. Our wall graphics apply in minutes and won’t damage your paint or l… |
|
|
Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals – Missile on Display at Alamogordo Space Museum, New Mexico. – Removable Graphic WallMonkeys wall graphics are printed on the highest quality re-positionable, self-adhesive fabric paper. Each order is printed in-house and on-demand. WallMonkeys uses premium materials & state-of-the-art production technologies. Our white fabric material is superior to vinyl decals. You can literally see and feel the difference. Our wall graphics apply in minutes and won’t damage your paint or l… |
|
|
Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand (Hardcover) $22.87 Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), Edward Steichen (1879–1973), and Paul Strand (1890–1976) are among the most famous photographers of the 20th century. This handsome volume showcases for the first time the Metropolitan Museum’s ex… |
|
|
Picturing New York (Hardcover) $27.14 “How shall the two-dimensional print in black and white suggest the flux of activity of the metropolis, the interaction of human beings and solid architectural constructions, all impinging upon each other in time?” Picturing New York presents myriad an… |
|
|
Stewart Parr ‘Madrid, Spain boy at Picasso Museum’ Unframed Photo Print $37.49 Artist: Stewart ParrTitle: Madrid, Spain boy at Picasso Museum Subject: Cityscapes |
|
|
Francesca Woodman (Hardcover) $27.91 “Catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition Francesca Woodman, presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (November 5, 2011-February 20, 2012) and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (March 16-June 15, 2012)”–Provided by publisher. |
|
|
Museum $17.99 Museum |
|
|
Photography and Archaeology (Paperback) $28.17 Photographs preserve the past, while archaeology unearths what has been preserved. Put together, photography and archaeology bring the past into the present, making its image available for a wide audience. In Photography and Archaeology, Frederick Bohrer examines some of history’s most famous archaeological excavations, as well as lesser-known finds, from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Bohrer examines the ways these sites have been represented in photographs and shows how the development of photography in the nineteenth century brought archaeology to the attention of the public. Uniting the histories of both photography and archaeology, Bohrer explains how what we know of the history of archaeology has been related to how it has been photographically represented and circulated in scholarly papers, personal accounts, scientific archives, museum catalogues, and other formats.  He discusses archaeological examples and images by photographers including Maxime du Camp, Francis Frith, John Beazley Greene, and Ernst Herzfeld, as well as more contemporary photographers such as Aaron Levin, Roger Wood, and Marilyn Bridges. While photography seems to guarantee documentary objectivity, Bohrer argues that it also fundamentally alters the archaeological object, transforming it into a work of art. Beautifully illustrated with archaeological images, many published here for the first time, Photography and Archaeology will be of interest to anyone captivated by both photography’s and archaeology’s ongoing engagement with the past. |
|
|
The Changing Face of Portrait Photography (Hardcover) $22.37 A richly illustrated volume examines ten photographers` portrait work and explores the power of the portrait and the role it plays in our personal and national identities.The Changing Face of Portrait Photography explores ten groups of portraits selected from within the Smithsonian National Museum of American History`s Photographic History Collection. The selections represent work by specific photographers with diverse relationships to portraiture, and through their sampling take a focused look at changing convention, theory, and technologies. |
