At this date 3 years ago, I was in the midst of installing my first video installation to be shown in New York City. The exhibition was selected as a "must-see" exhibition by Artforum.
Installation view: excerpt from In Guns We Trust book. Shot-up pick-up truck on a bed of 5000 bullets.
From the exhibition In Guns We Trust about military-grade gun culture in the USA at @arsenalcontemporary in NYC and Montreal.
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#contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart #contemporary_art #contemporaryarts #photographyart #artbook #photographybook #artshow #photoart #photographybook #photobook #artbook #nikonnofilter#nikonfr #nikoneurope #nikonasia⠀
#artinstallation
There’s something special about visiting a country for work—meeting people, exchanging ideas, and seeing your project take shape in a completely new context. It’s a much richer experience than visiting as a tourist.
Being in Korea last week for the opening of The New Cubans was exactly that. After exhibitions in Montreal (Blouin Division), Cuba, and Paris, it’s incredibly meaningful to see the work connect here—and exciting to look ahead to Mexico City this fall.
Endless thanks to curator @jaehyun_seok and coordinator @su2_photography for their generosity and dedication. So grateful for the warm welcome and thoughtful conversations... Not to mention the best Korean BBQ ever!
I am delighted to share with you five works that were sold by my Canadian gallery @blouindivision to the international recruitment firm Boyden. These works are now presented as a small permanent exhibition in Boyden's Montréal office space. A warm thank you to @rtduguay for making this possible.
The works cover various series developed in different subcultures. They were exhibited in NYC, Toronto & Montréal.
This installation view is from my exhibition In Guns We Trust, presented in Montreal, New York, and Toronto. The work marked my first foray into video, capturing fireworks ignited by 50mm-caliber machine guns in the Arizona desert. The piece stages a tension between the vertical, celebratory ascent of fireworks and the horizontal violence of tracer rounds cutting through the landscape. Since then, video has become an integral component of my practice, accompanying and extending each of my projects.
I began The New Cubans while spending time with young people in Cuba, in the middle of everyday hardships and a mass migration crisis that continues to shape an entire generation. What struck me was how many of them were actively reshaping their own reality through nonconformity, gender expression, and creativity — not as artifice, but as a form of resilience.
This series was first shown by ALMANAQUE at Zona Maco 2025 and then at the gallery for a solo show. It recently expanded into sculptural works. Using 3D modeling and AI-assisted processes, I translate a single photographic instant — often captured in a fraction of a second — into volume. Moving the image into sculpture allows me to work against the fleeting nature of photography and to rethink a medium historically reserved for public figures and cultural heroes.
Daniel and Camil are at the center of these works. Camil works part-time as a tattoo artist. Daniel sees his own body as a living canvas, using tattoos as acts of identity and self-definition. Shortly after I made these photographs, Daniel left Cuba for the United States, like so many of his generation. Knowing this now gives the image a different weight — one marked by urgency, fragility, and the sense that this moment already belongs to another place.
Havana, 2022.
Jennifer Vaamonde Vega, known as Jen, is from Havana. She is deeply spiritual and drawn to the esoteric, and hopes to travel the world—especially Europe and India.
@jennifervaamonde
Arian Rendueles Rodriguez, 22, is a skateboarder from Cerro, Havana, respected in the local scene for his skills shared on social media. He learned his first tricks at Ciudad Escolar Libertad, where skateboarding became his refuge during family hardships. After this photograph was taken, he moved to Spain. @arian_freak_sk8.9
It breaks my heart to hear about the situation in Cuba. Life was already very difficult but it is getting even worst given the larger geopolitical context. Of all the collaborators I photographed over the years, my estimation is that 50% have left the island.
Felix @itsfe_lixroman is one of the first people I met in Havana and who left Cuba shortly after. A singer and actor, he relocated to Spain. Currently, he divides his time between working at an opera company and vintage clothing stores. Félix aspires to create his own music show.
I will soon participate in the @zonamaco fait with my Mexican gallery @almanaquefotografica to share some previously unreleased works that are part of The New Cubans project.
Claudia @clo_inspiracion is a singer, composer, and guitarist from Pinar del Río who now plays all over Havana. She’s a proud mom to a 6-year-old and totally in love with Cuban rhythms.
Havana hasn’t been easy—post-Covid changes, scarcity, the ongoing migration crisis, the embargo, and local inefficiencies all weigh heavily. She can’t even get her music on Spotify. But Claudia keeps going, pouring everything into her art and holding onto the hope that one day things will finally get better.
This photograph is currently on view at @almanaquefotografica
THE NEW CUBANS
MEXICO CITY
Until Dec. 14th
ALMANAQUE Gallery
📍 Colima 101 PB, Roma Nte., Ciudad de México
Book published by @powerhousebooks & @andrefrere_editions
In this photograph, Katy AKA @follow_my_afro , poses in front of the Karl Marx theatre in Havana. She had the idea of posing there to create her contrast between the traditional values associated with the revolution and her keen modern sense of fashion aesthetics. Since then, Katy migrated from Cuba like countless young folks who struggle on the island. Numerous factors drive them away, including the failing economy, power outages and even food insecurity for some. It is estimated that 2 million Cubans left the country in the past few years (20% of the population).
This photograph is currently on view at @almanaquefotografica
THE NEW CUBANS
MEXICO CITY
Until Nov. 30, 2025
ALMANAQUE Gallery
📍 Colima 101 PB, Roma Nte., Ciudad de México
Book published by @powerhousebooks & @andrefrere_editions
PS. Katy is also in the last photograph... Again in a rather untraditional way. 😏
“Over recent years, an imperfect storm of global and local circumstances has reinvigorated Cuba’s creative and alternative subcultures like never before...”
Discover this powerful photograph exhibition, an ode to youth in Havana, by Jean-François Bouchard, currently on view at ALMANAQUE, Mexico City.
