Viewing Room – Crane Kalman Brighton

Photographs 1990-1996

THE CUBA ARCHIVE - TRIA GIOVAN

To mark 30 years since the first publication of Cuba: The Elusive Island, published by Harry N. Abrams, we are very pleased to present the first in a two-part exhibition of Tria Giovan’s comprehensive study of Cuba in the 1990s.

Having first travelled to Cuba in 1990, over the next six years, Tria Giovan took twelve month-long trips, traversing the island numerous times, and taking over 25,000 photographs. Immersing herself in Cuba’s history, literature and politics, Giovan photographed interiors of homes and businesses, city streets, rural landscapes, signs and billboards, and, most of all, the people, creating a body of work that captured the subtleties and layered complexities of day-to-day Cuba.

In 1996, Cuba: The Elusive Island, was published. The book brought together 100 of these images, along with a selection of writings by some of Cuba’s most important writers. Twenty years later, the images were re-edited, and a second publication The Cuba Archive – Photographs 1990-1996 was published by Damiani Editions in 2017.

"Giovan’s The Cuba Archive is about those who remained and lived in Cuba during the 1990’s – some of the toughest years Cuba has known. Like most things about Fidel Castro’s Cuba that enchant visitors, there is unique beauty but one intertwined with deterioration, isolation, and loss, and Tria’s photographs speak to this arrangement of unequal things...The beauty of these photos is as magnetic as the island “ - Silvana Pasternos from The Cuba Archive

Viewing the photographs through a prism of time and change revealed a new more complex view of the work’s historical significance. It is a record of elements that no longer exist and captures Cuba poised on the brink of change. As a body of work born from complete engagement and informed perspective, it is both comprehensive and intimate. As a historic record, it chronicles 1990s Cuba and bears witness to the spirit and integrity of a distinctive, resilient, and complex country and its people.

Raised in the Caribbean, Giovan has travelled the world on photography assignments, and her work has been published in Aperture, Esquire, Harpers, Travel & Leisure, Vogue and many other publications. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is held in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Parrish Art Museum, and The NY Public Library, among others institutions and private collections. Photographs from The Cuba Archive were featured in Cuba Is, an exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography, LA in 2018 and as part of The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an exploration of Latin American and Latino Art.

Four monographs of her work have been published to date: Cuba The Elusive Island by Harry N. Abrams in 1996, Sand Sea Sky by Damiani in 2012, The Cuba Archive Photographs 1990 to 1996 by Damiani in 2017, and Loisaida New York Street Work 1984 – 1990 by Damiani in 2023.

prints Available to purchase

Helado Havana, Cuba, 1994
Residential Building in Vedado, Havana, Cuba, 1990
Waiting on the Corner, Remedios, Cuba, 1993
Lady on a Bar Stool, Havana, Cuba, 1990
Beauty Salon in Vedado, Havana, Cuba, 1993
Guagua, Central Havana, Cuba 1994
Fantasias, Cueto, Cuba, 1993
Doorway, Baracoa, Cuba, 1992
Coffee Collective, Escambray Mountains, Cuba, 1991
Havana Libre Hotel Reception, Havana, Cuba, 1993
Children’s Clothing Store, Havana, Cuba. 1994
Car, Santa Maria Del Mar, Cuba, 1990
Plane Ride, Remedios, Cuba, 1992
Mural at The Big of Pigs, Playa Giron, Cuba, 1993
Presidio Modelo Prison, Isla Jueventud, Cuba, 1994
Prison Wall, Isla de la Jeuventud, Cuba 1994
Calle 23 in the Rain, Havana, Cuba, 1992
Bus Stop with March at the University, Havana, Cuba, 1993
Camilo Cienfuegos, Havana, Cuba, 1991
Street, Old Havana, Cuba, 1994
Avenida Salvador Allende, Havana, Cuba, 1993
Tree Lamp Signs, Havana, Cuba, 1993
Malecon, Gibara, Cuba, 1993
Three Men, Remedios, Cuba, 1993
Waves Malecon, Havana, Cuba, 1995