Cuba Taxi
Bjoern Obst

Size: 8.5in H x 10in W
Pages: 128
Date: 2018
Limited Edition: 5

The Cuba Taxi series captures random passengers, seen at night as they ride in one of the country’s most iconic symbols- the mid-century American car. Although largely thought of as objects of nostalgia by many visiting tourists, these shared taxis still serve as a primary means of affordable transportation for many locals. Generally traveling on fixed routes, these vintage cars -either battered or immaculate- carry families, couples, workers, and tourists to myriad destinations in Cuba’s cities and towns.
American cars were most widely imported into Cuba in the 1940s and '50s. When the Cuban Revolution ended on December 31, 1958, a U.S. embargo was enacted and Fidel Castro banned the importation of American cars and mechanical parts. Cuba is considered a living museum for classic cars.

Curator’s Statement:

Simple in execution, consistent in focal length and composition, the photographs are utterly captivating. One by one, Obst captures poignant tableaus of passengers riding in vintage taxis. Photographed in the inky, muggy Cuban evening as the cars slowly pass him by, the people are unguarded, or lost in thought, or tired, or urgent. The viewer, as voyeur, wades into these intensely private moments, and is snared. Here, the ubiquitous colored sedan, bordering on extinction and the subject of too many photos, plays a glorious and praise-worthy supporting role. They convey the same heroic fatigue as the people we see sitting in them, both living a tenuous salvation.

Upon closing the book, I felt I’d had the unmitigated privilege to see the eloquent series, these people, this place. To see a culture stripped of cliché, beyond its perpetual façade, was profoundly affecting. - Peppa Martin