Cuba: Photographs by Matthew Albritton

I went to Cuba about a year ago. Cuban cigars and music, chromed-out cars from the 1950s, Fidel and Che fighting from the mountains, Communism, and the US embargo all drew me to this forbidden country. I packed my camera with 40 rolls of film and set out to intentionally break US federal law for the first time in my life. Our government forbids US citizens to spend money in Cuba. Doing so puts one in violation of the trading with the enemy act and could result in fines and/or imprisonment according to official policy. I flew to Cancun and from there arranged tickets, tourist visa, and even hotel accommodations in Havana. Of course when I arrived at my hotel at one in the morning, it was booked solid. Luckily, a local in the lobby said he knew someone who had a room to rent for the night. He led me to a friend's house with a spare bedroom that I rented for fifteen US dollars cash. Surprise number one: The US dollar is official currency in Cuba. Surprise number two: capitalism is lurking just under the surface of official government policy.

Cuba continued to surprise me at every turn. The locals I met were incredibly friendly and became even more so when I told them I was American. It was refreshing to visit a country that has not been McAmericanized just yet. Cuba is one of the very few places on the planet that has no McDonalds, no Coca-Cola, and no American-style advertising. The stark absence of the mechanics of capitalism revealed just how inundated we are in America with constant product-placement and how obsessed we are as a nation with the pursuit of material goods.

Cuba is a country financially suffering under an outdated political system, but socially and culturally very much alive and bursting with energy. In the face of hardships increased by the break-up of the Soviet Union, Cubans have intensified bonds with family and community. Not to overly romanticize, poverty and hardship are the rule rather than the exception in Cuba; but I did feel an underlying energy resonating on the streets of Havana and Trinidad. This is what I have tried to convey in my photographs. I have also tried to expose something about our own culture, my love of travel, the random surprises one finds walking the streets of a strange city, the sublime nature of light, and people filled with dignity, hope, poverty, despair, resourcefulness, music, revolution, culture, love, and laughter.