HAVANA, Cuba, 21 November 2011 — AU Abroad students and their Cuban contemporaries pose for a group picture during our recent visit to the Advanced Institute of International Relations in Havana. The Institute, known here as the Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales (ISRI) is Cuba’s premier institution for the study of foreign relations between Cuba and the rest of the world.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 15 November 2011 — This two-page spread appears in the latest edition of News Photographer Magazine, published by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). It shows Chelsea Crandall, one of my AU Abroad students this semester, at work in Habana Vieja. I’m teaching my “Photojournalism and Social Documentary” class to the AU students, documentary photojournalism being the foundation of the methodology we refer to today as “backpack journalism.”
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 11 November 2011 – Students at a workshop run by the Office of the City Historian learn to replicate centuries-old metal decoration as part of an overall plan to restore the colonial-era city. I documented part of their training while working on a backpack journalism project here in Cuba.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 8 November 2011 — I gave an afternoon presentation at the Havana headquarters of Prensa Latina, Cuba’s global wire service. Life is curious. When I worked for United Press International (UPI) in Mexico City some three decades ago, we subscribed to Prensa Latina as a key source of information about events in Cuba, which was part of our area of coverage. Now, I’m giving presentations here on the methodology that we refer to as “backpack journalism.” (Photos by Roberto Morejón.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 5 November 2011 – Students who attended the first-ever Backpack Journalism Workshop at the Jose Marti International Institute for Journalism pose for a group photo with their new diplomas, their talent and their unbridled enthusiasm. A few of the students unfortunately could not make this last day of the five-day event when we screened their work, but this gives a sense of the range of professionals who put aside their jobs and their personal responsibilities to learn more about our craft. Five of the attending students traveled from the provinces to Havana in order to attend. According to the Institute’s Assistant Director Ileana Gonzalez Lopez, (at my immediate right) this workshop is the first the Institute has hosted to include the range of hands-on experience from pre-production, production and post-production of video stories for television and the Internet.
I’ve had the privilege to spend time with these colleagues, some of them now friends, because I’m here in Cuba for fall semester with a group of American University students participating in our AU Abroad program. In addition to teaching my “Photojournalism and Social Documentary” class, I’m conducting Backpack Journalism Workshops and presentations, as well as working on freelance video stories.
To see the informal group photo, see my Facebook page.
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 2 November 2011 – AU Abroad students on a hunt for images take aim at some of the colonial-era buildings and their inhabitants during our class period on Wednesday. Included in the group are three Cubans who have joined the class. Two are photographers employed by the Casa de las Americas where we are spending fall semester. A third works for another Cuban media outlet.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 4 November 2011 — We’re on the final work day of a five-day Backpack Documentary Workshop at the Jose Marti International Institute for Journalism. About 25 Cuban students are participating in the event. On the fifth day, we plan to view and critique the mini documentaries they generate.
(Photo by Heriberto Gonzalez Brito.)
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 2 November 2011 — AU Abroad student Cristina Khan eyes a street vendor before making a picture of him and his Che Guevara tattoo. Cristina is one of a handful of AU students taking my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, the foundation of backpack journalism.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
HAVANA, Cuba, 1 November 2011 — I’m in the middle of a lecture at the Jose Marti International Institute for Journalism, where I’m giving a five-day Backpack Documentary Workshop. I’m spending fall semester with a group of AU Abroad students, teaching my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class.
(Photo by Heriberto Gonzalez Brito.)
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 2 November 2011 — A student at a workshop run by the Office of the City Historian recently helps restore a building weakened by the rotting and subsequent expansion of steel reinforcement rods embedded deep in its concrete frame. I was able to document part of the restoration in conjunction with freelance work here as a backpack journalist.
(Photo by Bill Gentile.)
