The one-day congress will highlight photography in Cuba for almost two centuries, including its historic role in the Wars of Independence, the Republican era, the Revolution, and Exile. The presentations will cover the foreign lens—in both urban and rural settings—and Cuban photographers’ authentic rendering of the country’s religious syncretism, music, dance, and other cultural aspects, bringing to light the camera’s vital importance in capturing the life of everyday Cubans. A special emphasis will be placed on contemporary Cuban photography as an art, both in its vanguard role on the international scene and as a mode of civic resistance and political protest. The event will also focus on the underestimated role of women in photography, both as subjects and as artists, and will be capped by a round table with some of the most recognized Cuban photographers today.

Women Photographers in the Republic: Female Division of the Cuban Photography Club (1935-1962) offers an unprecedented approach to the woman’s role as a modernizing force of Cuban society with a focus on the scenario marked by the existence of the Photographic Club of Cuba between 1935 and 1962. 

The information results from the research process developed by the project Catalog of Cuban Women Photographers. Conceived in 2013 by curator Aldeide Delgado, Catalog of Cuban Women Photographers aims to document and recognize the insufficiently known information about women photographers in Cuba. It is a platform aimed at investigating the women who contributed to the development of Cuban photography, the historical conditions of their artistic participation, and the topics of their works; beginning in 1853 with the recovery of the first Cuban female photographer to the present.