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ARTIST TALK: Friday, September 15th from 7-9 PM

Step into a captivating summer exhibition as the renowned photojournalist, Alex Garcia, unveils his extraordinary collection of photographs. With a remarkable portfolio of over 6,000 assignments, Garcia has mastered the art of capturing raw emotions and conveying powerful messages through his lens. This exhibition takes you on a transformative journey around the world, showcasing Garcia's exceptional storytelling skills and his profound personal connection to Cuba.

Whether you are an ardent art enthusiast, a photography lover, or simply intrigued by the allure of Cuba, this exhibition is an absolute must-see. Alex Garcia, a Chicago-based photographer, director, and photojournalist, has dedicated his career to telling compelling visual stories across the globe. With an impressive track record, he has honed his ability to adapt to diverse environments and capture the true essence of his subjects. After departing from esteemed positions at both the Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times, Garcia pursued his dream of establishing his own production company. Today, he excels in directing motion projects and orchestrating complex hybrid shoots, combining his expertise in photography and film.

His genuine passion for collaboration and his ability to elicit the best from his team shines through in every project he undertakes. Supported by a group of amiable professionals at Three Story Media, Garcia consistently delivers exceptional still and motion projects that exceed expectations.

As a testament to his personal connection to Cuba, he founded CubaWorkshops.com, curating unforgettable experiences for photography enthusiasts of all skill levels who wish to explore the country's rich culture. With his fluent Spanish and expertise in navigating complex logistics, Garcia effortlessly leads, manages, and produces shoots for clients during immersive nine-day trips through Cuba.

© Alex Garcia

It is a confusing thing for a child born in Chicago to hear, “we can’t visit family in Cuba.”

So we didn’t. And years stretched into decades.

For the entirety of my half-century life, our country has lived with an unforgiving tension with our close neighbor that shows no sign of abating.  

Horrified by the balseros crisis in the 90’s, I chose to meet family and to know their stories and struggles up close. I wanted to place faces on names from family discussions and on the shadows of my imaginations; to understand what was essentially a forbidden culture.

In the decades to follow, I visited Cuba under many travel designations: as a cousin and nephew, a student, a photojournalist and most recently as a photo tour provider in “Support of the Cuban People.” As a moderate non-partisan, I’ve always tried to see things with an objective  eye. I am obligated to respect the life experiences that I can’t claim to ever truly understand, on both sides.  

Because of this, I have felt compelled to know and discover as deeply as possible the Cuban experience. Most often, the camera was a means to manifest that curiosity. Sometimes I used the camera to process emotions that were too deep and raw to understand in the moment.  Once, it was a shield to hide tears after an abrupt goodbye to my loving family, who I had just met.

In all, I hoped my images would recognize the love, joy, pain, struggle, sacrifice and pride that Cubans have of Cuba.  That the primary desire of Cubans is to put food on the table, have a loving family and live a life of purpose.

We are called to love our neighbor. It’s not the goal of photojournalism to seek such an end, but at their best, images can help advance understanding and compassion for people who are on the receiving end of decisions beyond their control.

Until that day of understanding comes, the enduring ties between our bickering countries  require a resilience and longing that is reluctantly given.   

Alex Garcia
Chicago, IL

This exhibition promises to be a feast for the senses, transporting you to the heart and soul of Cuba through the lens of one of the world's most accomplished photojournalists.

OPENING: Thursday, July 20th from 6-9PM.
ARTIST TALK: Friday, September 15th from 7-9 PM
To learn more about Alex Garcia and his incredible body of work, please visit his website: https://alexandergarcia.com

So Near and Yet So Far: A Review of “Enduring Ties, Resilience and Longing in Cuba”
BY SUSAN AURINKO | JULY 27, 2023
ART.NEWCITY.COM

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Alex Garcia takes us on an insider’s journey to his family’s Cuban motherland in his exhibition at The Chicago Center for Photojournalism. Not only does he have family still in Cuba, but he travels there frequently with his curated experiences called “Cuba Workshops.” There is heartbreak in having family so close—after all, Cuba is only 330 miles from Miami, but politically it may as well have been a million miles away until the country reopened in the mid-nineties. Garcia’s father was born and raised in Cuba, and left much of his family there, unreachable, and for Garcia, unmeetable. 

Garcia has covered more than 6,000 assignments in his long and illustrious career, working for both the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and is now head of his own production company, Three Story Media, which is fitting, because Garcia is a superb storyteller. One of the standout characteristics of his work is its immediacy—cutting to the heart of whatever is taking place.

In an infectiously joyous image from the show, “The Guide, Havana 2017,” Garcia’s cousin lights up the frame with her jubilant smile. Another lively image is “Yoruba Dancer, Trinidad 2020.” Framed against the vivid yellow of a mausoleum in a decrepit cemetery, a brightly garbed dancer calls on the ancestors or scares away the bad spirits, her skirt swirling around her. In “La Tropicana, Havana 2015,” the frame is enlivened by a troupe of dancers in red. Fireworks in “500 Years of La Habana, 2019” explode over the city on its quincentenary. The sun-faded pastels of buildings and cars we connect with Cuba are for the daylight—color and celebration are for hot Cuban nights. 

A shirtless man stands in a crumbling theater in Garcia’s “Theater in Decay, 2016.” This is the deteriorating Cuba we have all seen. What we have perhaps not seen are gentle images like Garcia’s “Love of the Son, Havana, 2001” in which a man who is hardly young himself embraces his elderly mother. Other images that touch the viewer are “Decades Later, 1995,” which simply shows ankles in a pair of sneakers with sand over and beneath them—home soil, and the image titled “Abuelo, 1995” in which pairs of hands reach for and lovingly touch a faded print of their grandfather. It is these tender moments that Garcia excels at. He has visited Cuba in many guises: as a student, as a photojournalist, and as a tour provider. He feels Cuba deeply and aims to portray that in his photographs. He says that once he used the camera to hide the tears he felt well up when he had to say goodbye to his family members he’d just met. It could be said that Alex Garcia is a humanistic photographer, capturing things that are not necessarily visible to the eye. How fortunate we are that he shares them.

“Enduring Ties: Resilience and Longing in Cuba” by Alex Garcia at the Chicago Center for Photojournalism, 1226 West Wilson, on view through September 15.

© Alex Garcia

© Alex Garcia