Photographer speaks

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY TC LIN

"I was in Havana a month or so after our esteemed new member Gustavo Minas visited the city, producing his own fine work as the city was experiencing uncharacteristically cloudy weather. When I arrived in late February, however, the strong Caribbean sun had returned, casting strong rays down the streets and lighting the vivid colors of the rundown buildings. It was almost distracting, as anyone who had photographed in Cuba can attest.

I probably should have been heading east on the crowded shopping street in Old Havana that day, but east lay the harbor and west my destination, so west I went, wincing into the afternoon sun. I paused when I saw the man leaning against the wall at the end of a saber of light along a duo-tone pastel wall, the reflections of sunlit passersby flitting behind him on the green glass of the recessed door. His grey hair and coral shirt matched the ornate wall perfectly, and the light caught his face whenever he turned his head to look up the street. He seemed to be waiting for someone, peering periodically at his watch and rubbing his neck, causing his arm to continue the stab of light down his body. He glanced at me, saw that both my lens and my uncovered eye were fixed on the wall, and continued to ignore me as I shot a few frames and walked on, into the light."