Cuba by Ernesto Bazan, Signed Limited Edition with Print, 19 of 100

Cuba by Ernesto Bazan

Deluxe Limited Edition, 19 of 100, 2008

Signed by Ernesto Bazan

Includes Signed Silver Gelatin Print

FINE Condition

This is a signed deluxe limited edition of the award winning photobook “Cuba” published by Bazan Photos Publishing in 2008. This is the English version with a limitation of 100 copies this being number 19. David Gonzalez wrote a detailed piece about “Cuba” in the New York Times in September, 2009 that included the following: Mr. Bazan is a man who embraces what some might consider mystical. In the early 1990s, he went to Cuba and wound up spending 14 years there. He married a Cuban woman and became a father to twins. And ultimately, he published “Cuba,” a big, stunning book of photographs capturing that island’s moods, mysteries and contradictions as few ever have. In Cuba’s forbidden allure to North Americans, images from its sun-drenched streets have become all too familiar: old cars, even older musicians, colorful costumes and dour revolutionary slogans. Yet those tired images fail to capture how time has also stopped for many Cubans, whose lives are a daily Sisyphean routine of figuring out how to resolve the problem of the moment. Mr. Bazan’s book documents that parallel and heartbreaking reality, devoid of color but rich in gritty black-and-white textures. He captures the stoic pride of the guajiros, farmers with rough hands and strong faces. Inside a store filled with empty shelves, a bored caretaker — how could he be a salesman if there is nothing to sell? — sits at a counter. Penitents in Havana seek divine intercession crawling on their hands to the shrine of St. Lazarus. Or they haul crosses, oblivious to the revolutionary slogans that no longer put food on the table or hope in their hearts.”

Measuring approximately 12” x 11”, both the book and the silver gelatin print are cased together in a hand-made clothbound black clamshell box. The original print is entitled, “Children Playing with Balloons, Havana, Cuba, 1998” and is numbered, signed and dated. The print measures 9.5” x 11.8” and was archivally processed on fiber base warm-tone double weight paper. Each print was selenium-toned to provide a more unique look to each photograph and embossed with two special seals made specifically for this edition. The book itself has been inscribed by Ernesto Bazan on the first free endpaper. The book, print and clamshell box are in FINE condition. The white letters CUBA on the front of the clamshell box are not completely solid with some of the black linen showing through the lettering (A minor issue that is probably how it was published but I thought it was worth mentioning).

“Cuba” won the 2009 award for “Best Book” at the New York Photo Festival.

Photographs of the clamshell case, the book cover, image of the silver gelatin print, the signature and limitation pages, as well as several photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by clicking your mouse on the thumbnail.