CIENFUEGOS STUDY 1, CUBA, 2003

When I look at this, I remember vividly what took place. I was in Cienfuegos, I guess it was probably no more than about 50 or so kilometres, perhaps a bit more, from Havana. And the very first thing I think about is how affectionate the Cuban people were and how free I was to feel that I could photograph there.

And you think of how much they’ve withstood; an enormous amount of instability over the years. When you are arriving, you’re given a wonderful, gracious welcome. I took myself to Cienfuegos, and I saw these lovely palm trees blowing in the wind and thought that they’re a bit sterile, a bit soulless, and that the sky was good at making a diagonal, which sort of created a nice triangle between the top of the wall, the bottom of the sky, and the clouds.

I looked at the various people coming along; other cyclists, motor cars, the 50s and 40s American cars that Cuba’s famous for. But none of them were candidates for me. And all of a sudden I saw to my right a cyclist, and I realised that he was the cyclist to have. He was in the right sort of clothing, he wasn’t in dark clothes, but then the key was to make sure that he was mid-pedal. This might seem like nothing, but if you make these slight adjustments you can save the day. All of a sudden I put the camera on the tripod, and as a consequence he turned to see what I was doing. And that face was crucial because it engages the viewer with the image.