Book review: Havana: Light Beyond Vision by Andrew Child
A Visual Exploration through Color Infrared Panoramic Photography
For the past several years, Boston based photographer Andrew Child has been traveling off of the beaten path in Havana, Cuba and its surrounding countryside, capturing rare images that explore its many hidden gems. Using his truly unique approach allows the photographer to reveal sunlight that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. Over sixty of these vivid panoramic images have been compiled into a 136-page, 13” x 11” coffee table book, Havana: Light Beyond Vision. With captions offering insight into the places, people, culture and history, from Hemingway’s seaside fishing village of Cojímar to Havana’s bustling avenidas, each image comes to life with a dreamlike quality that mirrors the mysteries of this island nation.
The recent expansion of permitted travel to Cuba has allowed many people to see this beautiful country and its iconic architecture and culture. Many in Cuba fear that the influx of visitors will be a double edged sword. While the country will enjoy the benefits of a blooming tourism industry, the rush to modernize and accommodate this influx will likely lead to the erosion of the culture and environment that was preserved for decades. The views that Child offers us may be some of the last remaining surveys of unchanged sights that would’ve been seen by the likes of Ernest Hemingway in the early twentieth century.
Child offers us both a documentary catalog of beautiful scenes around Havana, and a unique way in which to view the world around us via a wider spectrum of light. The advent of digital photography has placed many tools of the trade to the back burner, like solarized images, high speed film with its grainy images, and infrared film. Child uses a digital process, that he describes in the book, creating the look of traditional infrared color film, and panoramic views combined.
“Havana has a unique blend of Cuban hospitality, beautiful neocolonial architecture, Caribbean sensuality, and economic potential that keeps pulling me back. It’s also a country in transition — with one foot in Cold War socialism and one in free market capitalism — the perfect setting for exploring vision, perception, and misperception. The point of this book isn’t to offer a stance on the complex relationship between the United States and Cuba. Instead, I share this book with the public in the hopes of shedding some light, both literal and figurative, on our neighbors to the south.” explains Child.
In his acknowledgements, Child humbly gives credit to his Santa Fe workshop inspirations, and supportive friends and mentors, including venerable photographer Joyce Tenneson. His images do not come off as cliché, and he includes views of Cuba that are not covered in the typical coffee table book one might see on average bookstore shelves. Child’s self-published book notably adds to the catalog of photo books depicting Cuba’s beautiful landscape, architecture and culture.
Havana: Light Beyond Vision by Andrew Child
ISBN: 9780997877700
136-pages
13″ x 11″, hardcover
©2016 Andrew Child
Andrew Child is a freelance commercial and fine art photographer based in Boston, MA. Over the past thirty years, he has compiled a body of work that comprises subject matter ranging from infrared panoramas to portraiture of individuals with special needs. For additional information about Andrew Child’s work, and to purchase a copy of Havana: Light Beyond Vision please visit his website.
This is an edited version of the review published in F-Stop Magazine
