HAVANA, Cuba, 18 September 2011 — Here’s one of the images I made along Havana’s Malecon sea wall this weekend. While not teaching a class of American University students, I’m trying to re-connect with the country that I first visited as a correspondent for United Press International (UPI) in 1981. I visit now as a university professor and a practitioner of the methodology we refer to as backpack journalism.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 18 September 2011 — This is the beginning of a very long day hunting images for freelance work here in Cuba. I spotted this fisherman casting lines into Havana Bay, with fishing vessels in the background. I’m in Havana from 22 August through 20 December, teaching a group of AU Abroad students my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class at Casa de las Americas, Cuba’s prestigious cultural center. I’m also conducting presentations and workshops on backpack journalism, the methodology that is built on the foundation of documentary photojournalism.
(Photo by Esther Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 12 September 2011 — AU Abroad students arrive for another week of classes at Casa de las Americas, Cuba’s premier cultural center.
The AU students are taking a total of five classes at Casa, four of them taught by Cuban professors. I am teaching my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, a stepping stone to the methodology that we refer to as backpack journalism. The five courses are designed to provide students an immersion to Cuban culture and society.
In the picture are (from left) Emmalee June Kinard, Dara Jackson-Garrett, Chelsea Crandall, Cristina Khan and Paul Barrett. Missing is Edrain Ramirez, who arrived early.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 11 September 2011 — AU Abroad students board a crowded bus to reach a church service in Centro Habana on Sunday 11 September. The AU students are spending fall semester in the Cuban capital where they are studying at Casa de las Americas, this Caribbean nation’s premier cultural center.
The students are taking five courses at Casa, four of them from Cuban professors. In addition, I am teaching my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, which I present as a step toward the methodology that we refer to as backpack journalism. Made possible by the technical revolution in digital cameras and the Internet, backpack journalism is built on the foundation of documentary photojournalism.
In the center and wearing sunglasses is Emmalee June Kinard. To the left is Cristina Khan, behind whom is Dara Jackson-Garrett. Standing is Paul Barrett.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 5 September 2011 — I gave a two-hour presentation on backpack journalism to reporters from Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and Venezuela at the Jose Marti International Journalism Institute (IIP) in Havana.
My presentation was part of a week long International Press Photography Workshop sponsored by the institute. During the workshop, I stressed to participants how the old model of cameraperson, sound person, producer and correspondent to acquire and to disseminate news is yielding to a leaner, more mobile methodology that delivers a more intimate, more immediate version of visual communication. We call this methodology backpack journalism. (In Latin America we call it “periodismo de mochila.”)
And the advent of this methodology, made possible by the advances in digital cameras and the Internet, is good news for those of us who practice it.
IIP Director Antonio Molto and I discussed how this shift, which has been occurring in the United States to varying degrees for some time now, is beginning to happen in Latin America and the Caribbean. The change is occurring in many parts of the world as a result of economic exigencies as much as journalistic preferences.
For practitioners like myself, the key issue is not that the shift is happening because of economics, but that it is actually happening.
(Photos by Esther Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 2 September 2011 — AU Aroad student Chelsea Crandall, far left, walks through the Museo de la Revlucion in Centro Havana, Cuba. Crandall is one of six AU students taking part in a semester at Casa de las Americas, Cuba’s premier cultural center. In addition to four courses they are taking from Cuban professors, the six AU students will be taking my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, which I teach as the foundation to the methodology that we refer to as backpack journalism.
Above, the AU students wrap up a series of field trips with a visit to the Capitolio, in Centro Havana. From left are Cristina Khan, Emmalee June Kinard, Chelsea Crandall, Cuban Professor and Historical Guide Gerardo Hernandez Bencomo and Paul Garrett.
(Photos by Bill Gentile.)
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 31 August 2011 — Attached are more photos of AU Abroad students recently touring Old Havana, including the first image of a friendly peacock at one of the stops.
(Photos by Bill Gentile.)
Erin Finicane has proven a long-standing tenet of documentary: The craft is an effective tool for social change.
Erin is a second year graduate student at American University pursuing an MFA in Film and Electronic Media. She hopes to use documentary and related media as a tool for education, engaging audiences in the stories behind the issues, and encouraging young minds to become writers of their own cultural narratives.
Erin took my Backpack Documentary class in Spring 2011, following the story of a diverse community in The Norwood, an affordable housing unit located in Logan Circle. Claiming to be victims of discrimination, poor living conditions, and an abusive management company that aimed to convert to condo, Norwood residents pulled together to buy their apartment building and fight for their right to fair and affordable housing.
And Erin Finicane documented that fight. She said recently that my Backpack Documentary class provided her “the skills and opportunity to produce the trailer” for her upcoming feature film on the Norwood, “Brunching with Bedbugs.”
The residents of The Norwood recently purchased the building. They attribute their success in pursuing financing from the city in part to the fact that they were able to include Erin’s trailer in their application package. They chose a new management company and are now preparing for renovations. The residents are hosting an October block party to celebrate their success and are inviting the mayor.
Erin continues to follow the story and is partnering with organizations around the city to launch a DC-wide campaign on affordable housing preservation.
In the photo above, Erin works in the field.
(Photo courtesy Erin Finicane.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 31 August 2011 — AU Abroad students take a break from a tour of Old Havana for a group photo. They are standing in La Plaza Vieja, or “The Old Plaza,” which is being renovated in a bid to recapture its colonial-era splendor. This area of Havana is a favorite of foreign tourists who flock to Cuba each year.
Pictured are (left to right) Paul Barrett, Efrain Ramirez, Emmalee June Kinard, Chelsea Crandall, Cristina Khan, Professor Gerardo Hernandez Bencomo, Hope Bastian Martinez, me (Bill Gentile) and Dara Adelaja Jackson-Garrett.
(Photo by Esther Gentile.)
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