Havana Cuir (2021 - ongoing)
By Evelyn Sosa
Evelyn Sosa’s Havana Cuir (2021-ongoing) transcends mere documentation; it is a deeply personal exploration of the lives of younger generations of queer Cubans in her native Havana. These generations’ coming of age in a time of gradual openness in Cuban society towards LGBTQ+ issues, navigate their identities with a newfound sense of freedom and visibility. Sosa’s ongoing series captures a wide array of intimate moments, poignantly portraying the diverse and often unseen aspects of their everyday lives. Through her close relationships with these individuals, she gains unique access to their most personal experiences, allowing her to depict them with an intimate and evocative approach to portraiture.
One of the central figures in the series is Valeria, whose inner world Sosa reveals with profound sensitivity, offering viewers a window into the complexities of identity and expression within a community that is both reshaping and being reshaped by a more inclusive cultural landscape in Cuba.
Evelyn Sosa (Havana, Cuba, 1989) is a Miami-based photographer renowned for her intimate, documentary-style portraiture. She has refined her craft through various workshops, including those at Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and FotoFest International. Sosa gained prominence in 2016 when she won the Herman Puig Prize at the Body Photography Salon in Havana and received a special mention at the 7th edition of the Post-it Cuban Contemporary Art event in 2021. Active since 2011, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions across Cuba, the United States, Japan, and Europe.
Her first solo exhibition, Strange Birds of Passage, took place in Havana in 2017, followed by Havana Intimate in New York in 2019, where she also released a photo book of the same name. In 2023, Sosa co-presented the duo show You are Everyone Who Tells a Story at Space 776 in New York. She has worked as a photo editor for independent Cuban magazines such as Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo since 2019, and she has maintained a photo column, Estudio Leve, in Hypermedia Magazine since 2021. In 2023, Sosa graduated from the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, where she was awarded the Director's Fellowship and the Arnold Newman Scholarship.