There are several projects that got started last year when I was down in Cuba. Some of them are in collaboration with a Cuban Painter friend of mine, while others are solo projects.
There is one tentatively titled “City of Today.” It’s a photographic piece, maybe 8-10 total in the series when it’s all said and done. I did all the shooting for it when I was in Cuba, but I need to spend a little more time with it as it’s more than just straight photography — this project will be a departure for me.
I had a really hard time in Cuba, as the overwhelming vibe I picked up was the lack of tomorrow. Everyone is waiting. Waiting for Castro to die, waiting for Raul to die, waiting for the next big thing. Yet they don’t know what the next thing will be, so they can’t project a future. Everything is about today.
In a City of Today, love seems to be futile.
Relationship is largely based on the concept of tomorrow, the potential for two people to build a future together. If there is no tomorrow, if there is not a dream of a future, then what is the purpose of the relationship?
Nearly 9 months after this project was conceived, set in motion, but still incomplete, I had a radical thought.
I would like try a version of “City of Today.” A relationship that has no tomorrow. Both parties enter into it knowing that there is no tomorrow, there is only the here and now, the next few hours and no more. There might be few more hours in a week’s time, in a month’s time, or maybe never again. It doesn’t matter. To be here, to be present, to only exist for this moment.
I am simply curious.
I am curious to have the experience and see what it would be like. I am most creative when I am present. I have the most fun when I am present. Hence, I am interested to see what it would be like to act counter-intuitively to the essence of a romantic relationship, stop worrying about tomorrow and just love for now.
I feel slightly guilty for leaving this project from Cuba for so long, unfinished, yet 9 months later, I have a different perspective on it. Maybe it wasn’t ready to be finished back then and it is nearly ready now….
Tell me about the gestation for projects that you are working on.
