Cuba Absolutely writers, photographers, contributors

KUTI has lived in Havana for nine years. In her search beyond the city, she reveals unknown realities, hard yet tender images, sceneries that are at times full of light, others, dramatic. She brings moving images, and poignant gazes. With her exhibition "...UNA VEZ" [.ONCE] (Miramar Trade Centre, Havana, April 2006), she made herself known to a public whom she took by surprise not only for the content of her work but also for the original manner in which it was mounted. This year, her second exhibition "ENTRE CALLES" [BETWEEN STREETS] brings us the most beautiful portrayal of Havana and its lights, its local customs, the city's characters, whose roles escape the eyes of the uninitiated viewer.
www.photoproducers.es/kuti

Juliet has worked in journalism, design, photography and design management. Her work has been published and exhibited in England, the US and the Caribbean. During early visits to Cuba she encountered an infuriating dearth of information on Havana in English which promoted her to write Havana - Review of a City (see right). She worked for many years as Head of Design for the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Office of the City Historian of Havana.

Beatriz was born in Spain and has been interested in cooking from an early age. She ran cooking classes and a catering business when still a student and then worked at the Alambique Cookery School in Madrid before moving to Cuba. Here she soon developed a keen interest in the local cuisine and culture. She is co-author of From Spain with Olive Oil as well as contributor to numerous cooking magazines. She currently lives in Havana with her 3 children.

Dick Cluster is a writer, translator, and teacher who has been visiting Cuba regularly since 1969 and lived in Havana in the 1990s. He is the co-author of History of Havana (2006), with Havana writer and researcher Rafael Hernández. He has translated Cuban fiction by Raúl Aguiar, Aida Bahr, Mylene Fernández, Pedro de Jesús, Abel Prieto, Antonio José Ponte, Mirta Yáñez and others.
dick.cluster@umb.edu
www.palgrave-usa.com

Robert Polidori is an active photographer based out of New York City. He has published four books of photography, including Havana (2001), Zones of Exclusion Pripyat and Chernobyl (2003), and Metropolis (2004). He has published work in internationally, in such magazines as Vanity Fair, Condé Nest Traveler, Newsweek and Wallpaper. He is the recipient of the World Press Award for Art, 1988, and the Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Magazine Photography, Architecture 1999 and 2000. Polidori was born in Montreal and relocated to New York in the seventies, where he began working for Jonas Mekas at the Anthology Film Archive. He received his M.A from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1980.

Charlie Johnstone is a New York based photographer. His work is to be found in many private collections. He is represented by Meredith Ward Fine Art in New York City. His first book, Havana, will be published in early 2008 to coincide with his solo show at the above gallery.

Stephen Gibbs spent five years living in Cuba as the BBC's correspondent based in Havana. He has worked as a radio and TV reporter for fifteen years; outside Latin America he has spent extended periods reporting from both the Middle East and Africa. He has also written and published 6 children's books.

Johannes Werner is editor of Cuba Trade and Investment News. He resides in Sarasota, Florida.

Matthew is now a Director with Ernst and Young responsible for Business Intelligence and Transaction Advisory Services in Cuba. He has spent more than 8 years working predominantly on the island during which time he has managed the audits of some of the largest entities working in Cuba as well as preparing Ernst and Young's Annual Guide to Doing Business with Cuba and other business intelligence convrning the island. Prior to this he worked in London as part of Ernst and Young's capital markets group.

Journalist, travel writer, and essayist, Conner has lived and worked in Cuba since 2002. She first visited the island volunteering as a field hand in 1993 - the nastiest part of the Special Period. Between harvesting boniato and shots of chispa de tren, she fell in love with the island and her future husband (but not fufu). She is the author of over a dozen Lonely Planet guides (including Cuba, 3rd ed.) and scores of feature articles on Cuban travel, health, and culture. Conner's current projects include a documentary about a certain someone's Havana garden, a novel-length essay about being Yuma in Cuba, and an oral history of her 86-year old neighbor. Learn more at her website:
www.connergorry.com

She has had various exhibitons including on Syria and USA in Signal Arts Centre, Bray - Cork Vision Centre - Caherciveen Community Centre and on 'The Convent' in the Cahirciveen library. Publication of poems in 'Wildeside' and 'Microbe' Writing of story 'The Asphodel People' Work with Dancer in Residence, Maggie Harvey. Her latest exhibition 'In search of music.''Cuba' was displayed in Samhlaoicht Gallery, Tralee, July 2007. The prints are for sale and that her film/slide show on DVD for sale too, featuring live recordings by Cuban musicians. See:
www.myspace.com/karolienverheyen

Italian Roberto D'Addona photographs fashion, food, interiors, still life, and travel. He grew up in Switzerland and moved to New York in the mid 90s to study at the International Centre of Photography. More than a decade later, his clients include Movado, Tommy Hilfiger, L'Officiel de la Mode, Korean Vogue, Time Out New York, and City magazine. He lives in Manhattan.

Amir Saarony lives in Toronto, Canada. He has made over 50 trips to Havana and is a true cigar aficionado with a passion for Havana the city, its people and its cigars. He has written numerous articles for international magazines on the latter.

Sarah Stephens is Executive Director of the non-partisan Center for Democracy in the Americas and its Freedom toTravel Campaign, which fights for the rights of all US citizens to travel to Cuba. http://cubacentral.com/

Wayne is now a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, www.ciponline.org, in Washington, D.C. At the time he left the Foreign Service in 1982 because of his disagreements over Cuba policy, he was Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana and recognized as the State Department's leading specialist on Cuba.

From 1996 to 1998, he was editor in chief of Artecubano magazine and the informational tabloid Noticias de Artecubano. He was also founder and editor of Dédalo, and art and literature magazine of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS). He is the author of Incursión en el grabado cubano (1949-1997) [Incursion into Cuban Engraving (1949-1997)], Palabras en acecho [Lurking Words], and Arturo Montoto: trazos en la arena [Arturo Montoto: Strokes in the Sand], and has co-authored biographical books of artists Agustín Bejarano, Nelson Domínguez and Belkis Ayón. His articles, reviews and interviews have been published in Cuban and international catalogues and magazines.

Matthu Placek's work focuses on performance and fine arts and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, V and GQ. His illustrious collaborators and subjects have included Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel, Vanessa Beecroft, Brice Marden and James Ivory. A native of Southern Ohio, Matthu Placek lives and works in New York City.

Eric Testi is a passionate diver who has made more than 3,500 dives, most of which have been in Cuban waters. He is a dive instructor and together with his wife, Déborah Andollo has worked on underwater documentaries including most recently with NHK of Japan and with various projects to protect the environment.

Outside magazine gave this thumbnail of Armando Menocal: “a world-class Wyoming climber who’s been helping the Cuban rock-climbing community get off the ground.” In the 1990s, Armando travelled to Cuba in search of his family roots, but "discovered" Viñales instead. Amazed at the potential, he made dozens of return trips to climb its rock walls, always bringing gear for the Cubans, eventually publishing a guidebook, Cuba Climbing (quickdrawpublications.com 2009) and creating a website, cubaclimbing.com, to show the world all that Cuba has to offer. Today Armando has a Cuban fiance, a Cuban daughter-in-law, and two Cuban grandchildren. Thus, he is attached to Cuba by more than just a rope. He lives in Wilson, Wyoming, and hopes to return to Viñales.

Louis Head is Director of Cuba Research & Analysis Group in Albuquerque, NM, co-founder of US-Cuba Cultural Exchange and a member of the Board of the Latin America Working Group in Washington, DC.

Schona Jolly is a British freelance writer and lawyer whose passion for Cuba and Latin America sees her frequently in the region, and as often as she can be in Havana. She has almost finished her first novel, and in the meanwhile continues to write for the Guardian and other publications about the "politics, passion and pueblos" of the continent.