Wednesday 23 May 2012

Postcard of the Day No. 54, Havana


This unusually radical composition exploits to the full the extraordinary visual impact of the overhead shop awnings with their cropped and fragmentary letters and numerals. Walker Evans visited Havana in 1933 on assignment for what was eventually published as The Crime of Cuba – this image would not have looked out of place in his portfolio. Obispo Street today is a pedestrianised thoroughfare lined with shops catering to tourists conspicuously lacking the air of quiet dignity that graces this postcard from 1916. 


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