Centro Habana – Street Scenes
This is a continuation of my previous post, with more photographs from the Centro Habana neighborhood of Havana. In the prior post the focus was on straightforward portraits of people in the neighborhood. Here I’m sharing shots of people in the context of street scenes. As I’ve said, the deterioration of the buildings in Centro is remarkable. This seems to the be result of decades without resources and investment incentives. In these photos you can sense the relative emptiness, and the diminishment of what must have been at one time a vibrant community. Looking into the neighborhood from the Malecon (the street and sea wall that form the north edge of the area) it can look like a war zone (see photo below).
Against this bleak backdrop the life that goes on within the neighborhood is accentuated in a way. There are no signs of the intensity and schedule-driven rushing that characterizes life in many Western/developed cities. With few cars there are no stop lights governing intersections and telling people when they can cross the street. Kids have freedom to play wherever they want. Men can work on their cars in the street – it’s often a communal activity. Clusters of people hang out in large doorways or on stoops. Folks on balconies above keep an eye on what’s going on, or maybe drop a line to lift a shopping bag up from a family member below. There’s little buffer between their lives and the street. All this activity goes on against the strange physical fabric of Centro, with its crumbling structures, fading colors, and historic styles all mixed together – it’s like a stage set.
