Gibara City, a Fortunate Nature

By Amauris Betancourt.

Gibara city is often related to being an attractive and beautiful port city. That is true. But its natural charms are rarely referred to.  The treasured biodiversity calls the eye (lens) of photographers, amateur and professionals, to whom it is not difficult to make time stop in an instant of the flora and fauna because of the inherent photogenic, rural and city milieu.

The Cupeycillo (a rural place) ecosystem hosts endemic bird species and houses too corridors to migrant birds that frequently make a staying in given seasons.

Carpintero jabao o Meladerpes supecidiario.

Cartacuba o Todus multicolor.

Cartacuba o Todus multicolor.

Siju platanero.



 

Gibara Bay with a view of Gibara's Saddle hill.

 Gibara Bay’s grace bewitches: I do not believe there is a person who, lens in between, opposes resistance to press the shutter; though there are many regretting not carrying a camera with to take the city in a shot ¿Any doubts?

Gibara Bay with a view of Gibara Saddle hill.



Gibara Bay at dawn.



Gibara Bay.

Gibara Bay.

Photography Fosters Compliments to Personal Merit

By Jose Antonio ChapmanPérez

chapman@radioangulo.icrt.cu

I admit –in almost 25 years of work in the exciting world of chronicles, comments and news reports- not having paid enough conscious attention to the photoreporter’s work.

Photoreporters are artist who perceive, fix and illustrate daily life with objectivity for the sake of the world tangible picture. We should agree then to echo the legacy of José Martí, our national hero, when he stated: “The opportune compliment fosters recognition”.

Acknowledgement stirs up imagination when checking firsthand the surpassed lyricism in the vital support of the image to a news report, an interview, or a chronicle; and in a photographic exposition.

Without fostering Chauvinism, in Holguín there are excellent press photographers. I would include Elder Leyva, Yusleidis Socorro, both of the weekly paper Ahora!; Juan Pablo Carreras from the Cuban News Agency; Amauris Betancourt, from Radio Angulo Digital; Juan Miguel Cruz, from the national weekly sports Jit. Of course not leaving out the TV cameramen from the local Tele Cristal broadcasting station.

Amauris, with a highlighted work despite his youth, is able to deliver a truly photographic gift where life is turned into news stories. His originality towers itself over criticism and undue diatribe. He is only small physically.

These arguments backs up the objective praise in the full-of-life photo exhibit “Holguín: 50 Years of Revolution” at the CMKO Radio Broadcasting Station's gallery, where it can be appreciated.

Juan Miguel is another lens talent maker of wonders, and is currently making sports photography; but he goes in too for nature photography besides daily photojournalism. The approach to this assessment comes true at Radio Angulo's Web site, where both professionals add pictures to different news genders in the published works.

It is written and spoken of professions frequently and at times conventionaly, but very little is said about photoreporters. I just want to pay humble homage to this beautiful memory-perpetuating work.

The Oldest Barber in the World Lives in Eastern Cuba? (Version en español disponible).

By Amauris Betancourt.
amauris@radioangulo.icrt.cu

His steady hand holds up the scissors. His sight, 20x20, can not be better. He has never worn eyeglasses. Some neighbors have him help threading needles. The oldest active barber in business in Cuba; maybe in the whole world, but it is difficult to say.

He is 95, but keeps a desirable freshness worthy of envy by any young boy. A fine, witty sense of humor, part of Cuban idiosyncrasy, keeps him company. José Azze Yunes, alias Pepito, started as a barber in 1927. “Nowadays three months are enough to become a hairdresser.” – Pepito says– “I learn by watching after having been apprentice for 18 months at Alberto Garcia’s barber’s shop."

Pepito knows how to use the modern small hair-cutting machine; Present-day barbers prefer to avoid scissors. New styles are also different but I keep them the old way. His barber's shop at Peralejo 37 resembles a plateau for a XX century movie and is a meeting place for friends and passing-by neighbors who never miss a chance to pull his leg as a way of greeting. Pepito was born on March 19, 1913. Is he the oldest barber in the world? I hope these lines for the World Wide Web help us find it out.