Fábio Roque – The Cubans

Fábio Roque – The Cubans

By Kaymir Stark

Cuba holds a special place in our hearts. Portuguese photographer Fábio Roque captured daily life on the (still) tranquil pearl in the Caribbean. For me personally it’s a sweet trip down memory lane. I traveled the island for a month; lost my wallet, visa, passport and a bottle of fine rum. Got ran over by a horse, can describe the interiors of two police stations, immigration services and the Dutch embassy. Absolutely awesome experience. Be sure to check out the crispy clean photography of Mike Heath and his Cuban mixture featured on CFYE in 2012.

The Cubans
Boys fishing on the Malecón

“They care for you, want to know where you are, what you do, because you’re there.”

“I love my trip to Cuba, for many Reasons. Firstly, always thought to go find a place enclosed by years of isolation, and it was definitely a pleasant surprise to see that people are so given as can be. Speak to you of all things, from politics to sports. I love it. And then it was fantastic to see all that is in the Cuban culture, from the music to the ritual of riding the ride.”

Havana street
Havana street

“Starting from the beginning, this my choice based on the idea of photographing the Cuban people in their day-to-day, free from prejudice, and taking into account that continue to live in a totalitarian state, I tried to understand to what extent this influence or not your life.”

Car in solitude
Car in solitude
Public beach
Public beach

“I decided to do a project based on the reality of the Cuban people, where they do not all go to the same side, while some crave the capitalist world, others dislike it, so I did a road trip across the island from Havana, Pinar del Rio, Vinalles, Varadero, Cienfuegos, Cardenas, in order to shoot different types of people, of various ages and places where living conditions are quite the opposite.”

House in the Pinar del Rio area
House in the Pinar del Rio area
Cruising with a funky parasol
Cruising with a funky parasol

“For example the local economy in Havana lives a lot of the growing tourist industry, in localities like Vinalles the population is mainly engaged in tobacco and sugar plantations. Also outside the major cities a communist ideology still thrives more strongly. So I’ve always tried to be discreet in my approaches and models used depending on involuntary always the goal we wanted to portray.”

Boy standing on his fenced balcony
Boy standing on his fenced balcony
Ahh a classic car on a desolate road. Picture perfect travel agency stuff
Ahh a classic car on a desolate road. Picture perfect travel agency stuff

About Fábio Roque

Fábio M. Roque is a documentary and conceptual photographer born and based in Lisbon, Portugal. He studied  at the Portuguese Institute of Photography.View profile