It should be no surprise to anyone that HumansofHavana.com (HOH) is much like Brandon Stanton’s wildly popular HumansofNewYork.com (HONY).
That’s because Brandon has done such a great job building HONY – and he has acknowledged and welcomed all the other “Humans of” sites around the world. The HOH project is the Cuba Journal’s foray into a new genre of photoblogging or street photography as another way to tell Cuba’s story.
Everyone has a story. And in Cuba’s case, a whole country has as story to tell that is like no other. The coming years will reveal a lot of visuals and narratives awaiting connection with a broader audience. We want to chronicle the “change generation” that is unbound by age. The site is not political. It’s simply about Cuban people. Today, it’s in English but we will soon be adding Spanish.
The format follows HONY almost exactly. Candid images combined with short text narratives to add a little bit of context. Subjects reveal a little about themselves, which reveals a little about the city – and perhaps, collectively, a little about humanity. The site and Facebook page will be edited for politics or attacks on the subjects.
What can you find on Humans of Havana? We’re trying to capture the narrative of the Cuban people as they transition from a closed society to an open one. Our Cuban photographer has been given minimal instruction beyond capturing a true sense of what ordinary Cubans are doing and saying on the street. Hopefully, the collection of images and stories will allow site visitors to step into the shoes of a typical Cuban and catch a glimpse of an experience that may be different from their own and also learn something about how connected we are despite our differences.
