Havana St, Havana
Limited Edition Print Series
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What do you get when you cross colonial history with music, add coffee and more than a dash of rum?
I went to Havana to find out what makes the city tick and Havana St, Havana is the result. A photo essay, limited edition print series and story.
Havana St, Havana is a limited edition print series exploring life in the city today and its close connection to its past and its music.
One of the joys and privileges of travel is the chance to find out if these preconceptions hold up. If the one negative experience our friend had coloured their entire view, If what we’ve seen on TV has been oversimplified (it usually has), or if all that pre-trip research we did managed to give us an accurate picture of what to expect.
This is what led me to visit Cuba for the first time. To see life for myself compared to its depiction in all of the many movies, books, songs or guides made over the years. I knew the country had a complicated and often troubled past, but how does that balance with the happy-go-lucky tropical paradise we see in the media?
"I’ve always had a fascination with how the past shapes the present and Cuba, distilled into the city of Havana, occupies a unique place in the world with its history of migration and integration, colonialism and the endurance of the Cuban people. "
- Mark Eden
Heading along Obispo Street, home to Hemmingway’s Bar Floridita, we come to Havana Street. It’s a fairly non-descript, mostly residential boulevard. Quiet by comparison with busy Obispo, the street that takes its name from the city itself was built in 1519 and like those around it was conceived as a narrow thoroughfare to protect people from the sun. Also like the surrounding streets it has since survived raids by English, Dutch and French sea marauders. Havana was a pirate’s dream during the 16th and 17th centuries, having become a stopover for ships carrying treasures from the New World back to Spain.
Extract from Havana St, Havana
