Across the Straits

I traveled to Cuba several times between 1995 and 2000, photographing day-to-day life there at the end of the millennium and during the "special period".  Almost without exception, every conversation I had sooner or later turned to Miami. It seemed like almost everyone had family living in Miami and that they hoped to be reunited with them someday.  Miami was like a dream for many of them.  

Later, working on another project, I photographed in Miami from 2000 to 2002. And like in Cuba, whenever I was in Little Havana or talking with a Cuban-American, the subject seemed to always gravitate toward Cuba and Havana.

These two projects were unrelated and it was not until many years later that I thought about combining the photographs into a series of diptychs that place Miami and Havana side by side - comparing and contrasting these two cities that are inextricably connected and disconnected.

The photographs for this series are from Miami-Dade County and Havana Province with only one exception.  They were originally made without any intention of someday combining them as I have done here.