Portraits, Havana

Like a David and Goliath scenario; 19 rebels began a revolution in Cuba that unified the county and gained the strong arm over the USA in the 1950's. This notion was then, and is maintained today in the mantra 'Patria o Muerte', meaning 'Fatherland or Death'. 

With the historic political changes currently occurred between the Obama administration and the Castro regime, Cuba is now poised for transformation, ready or not.  Over a relatively short period of time we will see cultural , socio-economic and structural changes to an Island that has been visually frozen in time for nearly 60 years. 

These pictures poke fun at the notion of 'Patria o Muerte' and the irony behind maintaining a belief structure for a preposed notion of freedom, while questioning what freedom really is too? 

There is an unease in Cuba likened to the angst and rebelling of a teenager who has an overly protective, loving, yet sometimes unreasonable father, made to maintain his beliefs which don't necessarily reflect their own.

Brick Lane, London. 2008

California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

'Amorica' is also the name of the third album by The Black Crowes.

Havana's transgender community along the Malecón on a Friday night.

A light study

Bali

Sean lives along East Hastings IN Downtown Eastside (DTES), one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Canada. 

DTES is also known as Canada's poorest postal code and a melting pot for Canada's homeless. Access to cheap street drugs, social services, and the singularly mild south coast climate, has made Vancouver the number-one mecca for homeless people in Canada. There are presently around 2000 homeless people living there today, mainly in the DTES.

1.4 billion dollars has been spent by federal, provincial and municipal governments since 2001 on health, social and justice efforts aimed at improving the many problems faced by DTES residents. Vancouver's needle exchange, the first in North America, opened in 1989 and distributes about 3 million free needles per year to users. 40% of homeless people living in the DTES suffer from a mental illness.

Sean is addicted to crack cocaine. A hit costs him $5.

As the Burning Man annual festival now approaches critical mass after establishing in 1986; the State of Nevada are increasingly pushing higher taxes and enforced control onto the non-profit organisation which is placing greater restrictions on the freedom of those that attend yearly.

The organisers feel that they may need to relocate onto private land away from the State of Nevada's state owned Black Rock Desert in order to maintain the ethics of what the festival was built on - decommodification, radical self reliance and radical self expression.

These images explore the festival's size and scale.

Soweto / Hillbrow

Anti Zuma protester, Cape Town, 2017.