Cuban Farm Life - Vassanta (2016)

As mentioned in the "Cuba Tobacco Barn" blog, I had negotiated to shoot on a farm in Vinales to provide privacy. Beyond the farm's Tobacco Barn were newly tilled and planted tobacco fields. Many farms in the area still use oxen and 19th century technology to work the soil. This farm abutted a massive vertical limestone formation, called Mogotes, that Vinales is famous for. From the images, you can get the perspective of how massive these formations are. The only other place these formations exist are in China. After shooting around the barn, we did some creative shooting with the setting sun among the newly tilled fields and the adjoining banana trees. A few months after this shoot ended, Vassanta retired from modeling ending our 10 year collaborative partnership. So it is with happiness and sadness that I put the final editing touches on this set. On the positive side, I believe the images we shot here were some of our best work, with Vassanta's poses taking full creative advantage of the natural environment around her. I also believe my shooting and editing are some of my strongest with very deep and rich feeling to the final images.