Lorne Resnick – CUBA – PhotoBook Journal

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Photographer: Lorne Resnick (born Toronto, Canada, resides Los Angeles, CA, USA)

Essays: Lorne Resnick, Brian Andreas, Pico Iyer, Gerry Badger

Text: English

Hardcover book with dust jacket, sewn binding, four-color lithography, printed in China

Photobook designer: Leah Bloise

Notes: In conjunction with the opening of travel by the United States into Cuba, a Caribbean island which due to trade embargos has an economy and physical infrastructure that appears to be frozen in time, there is suddenly an overflow of photographic books that attempt to investigate this charming island.

Resnick is not a stranger to Cuba having started his 50 or more visits to Cuba in 1995. This thick monograph of lyrical photographs by a veteran street photographer using a documentary style has an interesting mix of color and black white photographs. His subjects are a mash up for portraits, landscape, details and social events. I have extensively worked as well as vacationed in the Caribbean, thus I find Resnick’s investigation appears to reveal similarities to but yet awkward differences with its Caribbean island cousins. In attempting to provide a wide view of Cuba, he occasional treads close to some potential Cuban clichés while yet infusing his book with humor, potency, intimacy and the exuberance portrayed by his subjects. Included is a nice book element with poetic text printed on translucent pages that intermittently layers his photographs.

Resnick also has a limited edition version of this book that includes a 60-song Cuban music collection. nice.

Cheers

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