Beyond History is a new photo book on Cuba. The collection of portraits were taken in Havana from 1998 to 2006. It’s Poetic Documentary vs Dirty Realism. The book is layed out in the spirit of a Cuban-Peter-Beard-style Journal, with snapshots and scribbles rubbed up against each other. The Photos, Artwork, Collages, and Texts are all created by V.D.

Each of the poems are written by another artist named Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. Photographer V.D. befriended Pedro in Cuba (a respected poet in Cuba whose writing has been called “Dirty Realism” (Charles Bukowski is considered the godfather of dirty realism).

IN V.D.’s words, the Beyond History project “could also be considered a manifesto against photojournalism, against propaganda from the inside and the outside, against tourist maps and exoticism.”

What I find most refreshing is that it’s just a collection of younger faces on the island. Raw, real, and just living their daily life beside their beloved caged birds. Nothing phony in these images.

The book is published out of Amsterdam by Bold Publishing. Visit VD at Beyond History or at VincentdelBrouck.be.
J