Ernesto Bazan was born in Palermo, on the island of Sicily in Italy in 1959. He received his first camera when he was 14 years old and began photographing daily life in his native city and in the rural areas of Sicily. Photography has been more than a profession: a true passion, a mission in his life.
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With an eclectic body of enriching, honest and deeply committed work, one can only admire the talent that is Ernesto Bazan. Working as an insider, as opposed to an observer, enables Bazan to display the candid truth. In this conversation, Bazan speaks of the factors and inspirations that led to him becoming a photographer, the pleasure he draws from being a teacher, as also his unique relationship with Cuba and its people.
What role does Cuba play in your journey as a photographer? Who is Ernesto Bazan before Cuba and after Cuba?
Cuba is a very important part of my destiny. I didn’t know it then, when I first went to Cuba, but as the years went by its role in my career became clear. In Cuba, my life changed both on a personal level and also on a professional one, because in Cuba I met my future wife, my life companion, and we had twin boys, which was another amazing gift. Thanks to my Cuban pictures I’ve had the privilege to win important prizes like the W. Eugene Smith Award in New York, the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize, and the Guggenheim fellowship, among others. So for me it was like I was meant to be there. I like to believe that I must have lived there in another life, like those people who believe in reincarnation. I never felt so connected to a place and to a people ever before and never after that either.
