#cuban art
« Photograph, it’s a behavior, a way of being, a way of living. » It is what Henri Cartier-Bresson told us few years ago and what Arien Chang Castan reminds us today.
Arien always knew that he will do photography. When he was seven years old, he liked playing with his father’s Zenit Russian old camera. He always liked images, colors, movies.
Arien started his career studying paintings but after one year he was not really convinced. In 2003 he started to study photography and as he said “painting is the base of photography”, maybe that is the reason why his feeling was first studying paintings. Reading several books on photography, he discovered some famous and talented artists like Henri Cartier-Bresson – his favorite – Sebastião Salgado and William Eugene Smith. There, his passion for the photography returned.
When its class was over, he “didn’t know anything about photography”. His friends and the practices help him to learn more, to discover and to improve his own photographic style. For 7 years, he made black and white pictures, just analogical pictures. He learnt a lot doing this. Since 2009 he also make colorful photography. Two different kinds of photography, two ways of expressing his feelings.
Arien always wanted to do photostory to document Cuban life. He worked in Freelance for newspaper and brands. The documentary photography offers him the opportunity to expand their horizons and experiences through travel to new and interesting places, first around Cuba and then in the entire world wide. “The silence can explain more than thousand words” said Arien.
“I don’t feel that I’m working when I take picture” he said.
Actually, photography is much more than his job even more than his passion, photography is life lesson, his “way of living”.
Here are some pictures of Arien:
Clémence.
Wifredo Lam, Belial, Emperor of the Flies, 1948, oil on canvas
I saw this painting today at “Surrealism Without Borders”, currently on show at Tate Modern, and fell in love with the tiny dude near the middle of the picture.
He’s just a little guy, and he’s a big mood.
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Sandú Darié (Cuban, 1908-1991), Untitled, c.1950. Mixed media on canvas adhered to wood, 31 x 44 in.
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Lady Michelham, 1920
Federico Beltrán Massés
Private Collection
Havana Cuba
photo©jadoretotravel
![Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), Horizons chauds [Warm Horizons], c.1968. Oil on canvas, 97 x 130 cm.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4ce87d60ccd10aadcc5b42bd17a4071f/1c913780b2295533-94/s1280x1920/9bb4f0721eab615339577cca076cc39fe216552a.jpg "Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), Horizons chauds [Warm Horizons], c.1968. Oil on canvas, 97 x 130 cm.")
Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), Horizons chauds [Warm Horizons], c.1968. Oil on canvas, 97 x 130 cm.
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Armando Mariño (Cuban, b. 1968), Man On Fire, 2018. Watercolor and ink on paper, 43 x 28 in.
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“The only true and effective ‘operator’s manual for spaceship earth’ is not a book that any human will ever write; it is hundreds of thousands of local cultures.”
~ Wendell Berry
[Landscape of Havana, 1969 - René Portocarrero]
• Poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry lives in Port Royal, Kentucky near his birthplace, where he has maintained a farm for over 40 years. Mistrustful of technology, he holds deep reverence for the land and is a staunch defender of agrarian values. He is the author of over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His poetry celebrates the holiness of life and everyday miracles often taken for granted. More: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wendell-berry
• A large part of Portocarrero’s work deals with Spanish colonial subjects and Spanish-Cuban interiors. The search for national and tropical elements is superimposed on the baroque undercurrent which in large measure defines his work. … Also important is the series … of cathedrals: through a long evolution, buildings and cathedrals are combined in cityscapes which developed into the central theme of the artist’s work. More: https://panamericanart.com/artist/rene-portocarrero/
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