A collection of images taken on a 30 day voyage around the wonderful island of Cuba...



A photo-journalistic interpretation of daily life, particularly from the youthful perspective... being the future generation they convey the most immediate and lucid picture of Cuba today and how it will look in years to come.



How rare it is to find such unbridled freedom as is given the youngest generation here... schools regularly take their classrooms out onto the esplanades, the parks and plazas. Children are safe to roam night and day all over the island. With families gathered on every doorstep any misdeeds would never go unnoticed. The mere concept is difficult to imagine for the average Cuban.



The barrier between home and street is almost non-existent... you only have to stroll down a Havana street at night and the open doors and windows and flickering 50s TV sets beckon from within.



What the images show most remarkably is how the everyday sense of community, of social belonging is incredibly resilient in this country of revolutionary human determination.



People everywhere are incredibly resourceful, talented. Despite a basic existence, their lives seem fuller and more vibrant than many more affluent countries.



Everyone is active, heading out to dance... ballet, salsa... athletes unparalleled from such a small population, baseball, boxing... musicians of the finest rhythms... lobster & mojitos to celebrate... hanging out on the Malecon... idle time is a rarity in these parts...



With recent changes in the head of state, Cuba is currently in a state of flux... the people everywhere are aware of it and they're excited, yet apprehensive ... in fear of a change which might be too rapid.



The US media perspective of this country is incredibly misleading... the facts on the ground couldn't be more different... Castro is like a saint to these people... if you look hard enough you will find dissidents as in any country, wrongful imprisonments yes... but far fewer than in the US or the UK.



Castro has achieved a status quo unparalleled elsewhere... the uprising so long wished for by the Miami exiles will never come... nothing has changed since the Bay of Pigs fiasco... that will be Castro's legacy... that he will come and go leaving behind a proud population in spite of the hideously inhumane 50 year blockade by its imperialist neighbor to the North.



Tim Perceval 2008