On Saturday, November 29, the body-focused photography exhibition 'The Body as a Battlefield' opened, alongside the announcement of the winners of the Ninth 'Herman Puig' Photography Salon. The works stand out for their conceptual quality and interpretations of Cuban reality through the human body. The show honors Herman Puig, a key figure in Cuban photography and cinema.
The 'The Body as a Battlefield' exhibition opened on November 29 at the Mariano Rodríguez Gallery in Villa Panamericana and will remain open until December 31. This event marks the ninth edition of the 'Herman Puig' Photography Salon, recognizing young artists for their innovative works. As the article notes, "I want to highlight the quality of their works, their conceptual art depicting Cuban reality, their individual interpretations of what the body means and the value it holds in our lives. They are young artists with great talent and imagination".
Herman Puig Paredes, born on February 25, 1928, in Sagua la Grande, Las Villas province, Cuba, and died on January 25, 2021, in Barcelona, Spain, was a pillar in Cuban photography and cinema. He studied painting and sculpture, and in 1952 shot his first short film, 'Sarna', with Edmundo Desnoes. In 1951, with help from Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française, he founded the Cinemateca de Cuba, which evolved from the Havana film club officially recognized in 1948. Puig was also a portrait photographer for the García Menocal family and one of the founders of the Havana Photographic Club in 1939.
He collaborated on several short films with figures like Carlos Franqui, Edmundo Desnoes, and Néstor Almendros, including 'El Visitante' in 1955, 'Carta a una madre', and 'Sarna'. In the 1960s and 1970s, he moved to Spain, working in fashion and advertising photography. In Madrid, he experimented with male nudes, leading to accusations of pornography under Franco's dictatorship; he fled to Paris, becoming a pioneer in publishing the history of the male nude in photography and gaining artistic recognition. His works are held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
In 2020, the documentary 'El gran impaciente', directed by Juan Antonio García Borrero, premiered in Cuba as part of a Spanish cinema showcase, providing deep insight into this Cuban artist's life.