Cuba

Published by Editions Xavier Barral. Text by Clément Chéroux, François Hourmant, Valérie Vignaux. Interview by Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska.

In December 1962, just two months after the missile crisis, Agnès Varda (born 1928) traveled to Cuba. Like many French intellectuals, she was fascinated by this island and its charismatic leader and wanted to make a film to understand this particular mix of pure socialism, sensuality and cha-cha-cha. In order to preserve her freedom of movement, she traded film for still photography, with the idea of subsequently filming and reanimating her photographs with a rostrum camera. Although they had not been devised as art photographs, the shots from Salut les cubains (1964), presented for the first time in this French-language-only book, are of exceptionally high quality, an example of unhindered street photography. We recognize the sharp but always warm-hearted style for which Varda is known, as well as the tension between still and animated images. Agnes Varda: Cuba also compiles Varda’s archives--notebooks, sketches and editing notes--along with four illuminating essays.