The Value of the Image Made Word

By Alfonso of the Rosary and Betsy Cintra Friday May 08, 2009 alfonso@telecristal.icrt.cu

Photos: Kaloian Santos Cabrera.

(May. 08) The possible, talked-over and many times established dichotomies between journalism and literature are swept away with a flash-light by Kaloian Santos Cabrera in his exhibit “50 times Cuba”.

Forged the way of the daily newspaper Juventud Rebelde, he has known how to look for the short-lived in what is relevant, and the transcendent in everyday life.Kaloian comes to be that sort of rare avis's in journalism, since his words have also the graphic support, with a master complicity who makes sure an image is worth a thousand words.

The ones doing journalism, including those of the audiovisual world, can hardly notice the borders and the lack of visual perspective, while making the news. But Kaloian finds the significance in what the visible, in what is evident, but tinged in an aesthetic way.

Cuban flags play the lead role in different circumstances found by this photographer-journalist, with a prominence that surpasses lances, parades or crowded concentrations.

It is not common to find symbolism associated to a flag attenuated by ideology or history. Cuban idiosincracy emerges in the shape of banners, hanged from the necks of elementary-school students, in taxi bikes, in a simple chipped wall or linked to that so remote sea and protector.

Thousands of words would be able to enclose, perhaps, the intention to define those colors that stay in our idiosyncrasy, but fifty pictures go father, to the nourishing nation's confluence, where Cubans took shelter for the sake of the ones we loved.

The flag Cuban, despite epoch or country, has its own history. And backing all of us, we may not see it sometimes, but it will never slip by unnoticed. It has such an important history not to be seen and its simplicity is a true transparency translated in an obliged reverence.

Kaloian achieves his purpose highlighting one more time that essential things exist.

50 Times Cuba in May Pilgrimage

Written by Lydia Esther Ochoa / Wednesday, 06 May 2009 / lydiaesther@radioangulo.icrt.cu

Photos: Amauris Betancourt.

Kaloian Santos Cabrera.

(May 06) Among the photo exhibitions during the May Pilgrimage in Holguín, "50 times Cuba" by Kaloian Santos Cabrera stands out.

The exhibit is on disposal to the audience at the UNEAC building, about which Santos Cabrera said that "The idea of organizing an exhibition on the theme came out spontaneously".

“One day while organizing my files I met several pictures from different times where the Cuban flag was the main character. Then the idea of having a photo-essay on our national symbol emerged," added Kaloian.
He explained that "50 times Cuba" is a homage to the fifty years of the Cuban Revolution and that he chose each of the pictures from his archive though the missing ones were made shortly after his decision to expose. Fortunately I found them all but it became kind of an obsession till the last printing moment for the exhibition’s opening day when more photos with the Cuban flags continued to appear," asserted the lens artist.

He took into account similar exhibitions on the topic in the early days of the Cuban Revolution, in the 70’s and in the 80’s, and realized the zeal was challenging. His view as a young artist of these times would be the new thing for the exhibition to be added.
Kaloian’s photos do not only pay homage to the Cuban flag, but also expresses his cultural identity as a young man. That is why, you could see a picture of a child drawing our flag on the street or very big flags in a young people’s parade. He does not forget Cuban flags hanging out the balconies; those ones waving next to Jose Marti’s busts in the country’s schools, neither those present in people’s daily life, in cultural and sport events, where it has a more precise meaning of identity.

Leandro Estupiñan, young journalist and writer, presented the exhibit.

Kaloian Santos Cabrera graduated recently from journalism and has become a peculiar photo reporter. When writing he keeps in mind the look of the artist lens that burbles inside him and when taking a picture then it reins in him the ideas of a journalist.