Nelson was a quiet and warm guy. I went to the lunch with him and his benefactors where they expounded the downfall of his once beautiful country. His disagreement was apparent from small faces and sounds and polite contradictions. We had a long and vague conversation about the American embassy diplomats who got sick in Havana. Everyone seemed to be talking in euphemisms, hinting at what they thought happened, while many at the table didn't seem to have heard of the incident at all. I kept muttering that it was probably the CIA and it was like a USS Maine type of deal but no one was listening to me, the nut.
His presentation was great. He simply went through the history of photography in Cuba which situated his work in that specific cultural historical context. What a great way to do it.
The show itself reaffirmed my appreciation for documentary photography. Those were by far my favorite pieces in the show. In class I recently accused photography as capturing, not creating. I meant it as an insult but its really a powerful thing. No artist can create anything as beautiful as the little magical moments of coincidence and beauty that happen in the real world, and photography comes with the understanding that it represents reality. Yeah I liked Nelson's print pretty good but it doesn't compare to the documentary photography.
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