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Impressions of Cuba courtesy of the cameras of Mike and Sally Harris of Greenwich

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By Anne W. Semmes

Mike and Sally Harris in Havana. Contributed photo.

The camera art of Mike and Sally Harris surely proved a panacea to the travel hungry as witnessed by the number attending their recent Zoom, “Photo Journey to Cuba 2020. “We have a record of sign ins with over 147 people signed up for this lecture,” said Tatiana Murray, Executive Director of the Greenwich Arts Council that sponsored the Harris’s’ show and tell.

“Our goal today is to demonstrate the Cuban lifestyle through our photographs,” stated the Harris’s, and so it was shown in colorful image after image of the Cuban people living out their lives mostly in the streets of the various towns and cities where the Harris’s traveled. “We love photographing people in their own environments doing what they are comfortable doing in their everyday life,” confirmed Sally Harris.

There were young musicians beating their drums under a streetlight, a banner with Che Guevara seen reflected in a window – “Castro politics is till very much alive in Cuba,” said Mike Harris, and hanging on a laundry line, an American flag towel showing, “the love the Cubans have to the American people,” Mike Harris noted.

There were the kids taking a break from their ballet class – “They instantly come out and pose for us,” said Sally Harris. “We’re communicating with the people, and that it’s okay to photograph and then every once in a while you’ll get somebody who says no,” said Mike Harris. “Cubans are resilient and enjoy life and fortunately for Sally and I they love to be photographed.”

Capturing those street scenes in the different lights is an art. “Just the color and texture of these beautiful walls,” said Sally Harris, “They’re just extraordinary, and the colors are just so beautiful. I was struck in Havana particularly that you’ll see a really rundown building, it looks dangerous to live in and right next to it is an identical building that has been rehabbed, and it just appears like a great place to get an apartment.”

The Harris’s reported having now visited Cuba three times, 2012 and in January and March of 2020. The latest trip was with the People-to-People Program created by the Obama Administration, shared the Harris’s, with the purpose “to have groups meet and work with Cuban people.” And now, “Any person may travel to Cuba under several rules…Benefit the Cuban people is the most common.” But travelers are not allowed to stay in a government owned hotel, nor eat in a government owned restaurant.

The Greenwich Arts Council itself has sponsored a trip to Cuba. And present on the Zoom was Rev. Marek Zabriskie, whose Christ Church Greenwich members travel to Cuba in support of the fellow Episcopal San Marcos Parish in the town of Holguin, Cuba. Dick Schulze, also on the Zoom, serves on Christ Church’s Cuba Committee. He saw how the Harris photographs illustrate how, “Cubans love life. They’re innately a happy people. Despite all the difficulties they face in life they’re always enjoying life, the people around them and the world around them.”

Easy Kelsey, also signed in, was impressed by the Harris’s “obvious delight in their work,” and “why a certain face, streetscape, or action caught their attention. We became in some ways photographers ourselves thanks to Mike and Sally’s generosity in sharing their intimate reasons for taking a particular photograph.”

“We want to demonstrate about Cuba,” shared Mike Harris, that “the quality of life in Cuba is terrific, but it has been adversely affected by Cuba’s relationship with the United States. We’re not going to get into politics and who’s right and who’s wrong. But we just regret that the relationship causes considerable suffering to the Cuban people. It shouldn’t be their problem, but they’re resilient…They have a good education system and a very high literacy rate. Their life really is lived in the streets in Cuba. We would be out in the streets at daytime and night. We felt totally safe. I don’t remember seeing a policeman. Cubans as you might imagine treasure their old cars…There are cottage industries supplying parts for the cars, so that they can keep them running. They embrace sports and games and we do show that. And last, they really love the people from our country. “

Mike and Sally Harris Photographs of Cuba

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