Human Landscapes
James Clifford Kent (Royal Holloway, University of London) in conversation with exhibition curator Lucie Donaldson
For more information on Raúl Cañibano: Human Landscapes click here.
James Clifford Kent (Royal Holloway, University of London) in conversation with exhibition curator Lucie Donaldson
For more information on Raúl Cañibano: Human Landscapes click here.
Photographer’s talk with James Clifford Kent exploring his recent work in the UK and Cuba, which has involved developing a collaborative network in Havana and London with leading artists, curators and cultural institutions, including the Fototeca de Cuba and the Photographers’ Gallery.
James Clifford Kent is a London-based photographer who lectures on visual culture at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He explores ways of telling stories about people using portraiture and social documentary.
📸 Poster design by Lisandra Álvarez + portrait by John Perivolaris (London, 2023)
Photographer and researcher James Clifford Kent in conversation with Cuban photographer Raúl Cañibano at The Photographers’ Gallery London.
For more information on Raúl Cañibano: Human Landscapes click here.
Public talk exploring curatorial + photographic practice as part of a collections-focussed Study Day on the Revolutionary Caribbean organised by the Eccles Centre at the British Library, London.
The Cuban Revolution
Photographer and researcher James Clifford Kent explores the visual culture of a revolution that has inspired some of the most iconic imagery of the twentieth century, and discusses how photographs, picture essays and photobooks can be used as sources and inspiration for creative projects.
Click here for more information.
Conference paper
Society for Caribbean Studies: Annual Conference
Crises have disrupted life on the Caribbean’s largest island since the Cuban Revolution triumphed on New Year’s Day 1959. From the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, to the collapse of the USSR and the 1990s “Special Period,” Cuba has hovered between crisis and survival. Now in the Revolution’s 64th year, ongoing shortages in a centrally planned economy ravaged by the US trade embargo manifest themselves in sustained power outages and high prices for unrationed food. Numbers abandoning the island for the United States have rocketed in recent years, with a record-breaking mass exodus of over 300,000 people arriving at the US border in 2022. Artistic responses to crises have been central to their portrayal both inside and outside the island, in turn shaping the way the country is perceived in the global imaginary. Drawing on practice-based research informed by interviews with academics, curators and visual artists, recent curatorial and photographic projects, and fieldwork carried out in Cuba, this paper will explore challenges and potentials relating to creative practice, storytelling, and visual culture in the context of Cuba's deep economic crisis.
Read more about James Clifford Kent’s ongoing longform NHMN project here.
Featuring James Clifford Kent’s artwork: Living quarters in Downtown Havana, Cuba, December 2022 (from the series "¡No hay más na'!" –– there’s nothing left) .
Read more about Kent’s ongoing longform NHMN project here.
A networking meeting and workshop bringing together academics, curators, and visual artists at the Fototeca de Cuba (the island's main photographic institution) with the aim of developing international partnerships and exploring the role of creative practice, storytelling, and visual culture in the context of Cuba's deepening socio-economic crisis.
Practical workshop with British photographer Simon Roberts
In this workshop, British photographer, Simon Roberts, will take students on a journey through his 25-year career detailing how he has operated and adapted over time, while building a sustainable arts practice. The workshop will cover everything from generating ideas and planning a photography project to developing your portfolio and networking.
Organised by Dr James Kent with support from the Centre for Visual Cultures and the Humanities and Arts Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London.
You can read participant & undergraduate student Chiara Bordignon’s blogpost about the workshop here.
On assignment: Havana
Invited talk
Photographer’s talk: Dr James Clifford Kent (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Post-pandemic recovery of maternal and child health service
'PIVOT-AL project: Pregnant in a Pandemic (with Dr Staci Weiss, University of Cambridge)
Invited talk
Research seminar on Generation COVID UK collaborative project with Sarah Lloyd-Fox (UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, University of Cambridge)
Invited talk/hybrid conference
Cities of Modernism
Unimagined realities: From modernism to surrealism in Raúl Cañibano's Havana
For three decades, black-and-white photographs by Raúl Cañibano (b. Havana, 1961) have documented history and human experience, telling stories about his native Havana. Making connections across film, literature and visual culture, this paper examines how Cañibano employs modernist and surrealist influences in his ongoing series “Foto Ciudad” (1992–present). It also reflects on what the collision of social, historical, and political elements in these images says about Cuban culture and identity. In turn, it reveals how Cuban photographers such as Cañibano are creating alternative views of politically loaded places/spaces where pre- and post-revolutionary Cuban themes converge. To achieve this, the paper aligns Cañibano's work with critical historical moments that have determined Western imaginaries of Cuba. Informed by interviews and recent fieldwork on the island, it also considers Cañibano’s influence on contemporary Cuban photography and how native and foreign critics and audiences have received his work.
Our ‘In Conversation with Generation COVID’ platform enables a cathartic dialogue between new/expectant parents, clinicians and researchers to shine a light on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on family wellbeing and health.
Together, the COVID-19 in the Context of Pregnancy, Infancy and Parenting (CoCoPIP) study of 2,000 families from diverse backgrounds across the UK and the Pregnant in the Pandemic project interviewing and photographing the experiences of a range of parents-to-be document the resilience that families have shown in the face of uncertainty. Our conversation between new parents impacted by the pandemic and child development researchers intends to give “Generation COVID” families a voice for their stories.
The introductory 30 minutes by James Clifford Kent (Pregnant in the Pandemic lead), photographer and new parent, who will discuss their mission to document the diverse experiences of expectant parents who raised their babies or gave birth in the pandemic. Following this, there will be three 10-min publicly-accessible talks on the CoCoPIP study’s research findings - regarding prenatal healthcare access, maternal well-being and infant development - chaired by Sarah Lloyd-Fox (CoCoPIP lead researcher). Finally, there will be an open discussion with attendees and parents, facilitated by Sarah and James, and including spokespeople from policy making, charitable and clinical work in pregnancy, birth and early childhood. We hope our conversations will be a force for insight into the vital questions around the impact of the pandemic on perinatal mental health, infant development and healthcare policies which support family well-being. This event has been organised jointly by Cambridge Reproduction and the PIPKIN (Perinatal Imaging Partnership with Families) project within the Department of Psychology.
We welcome allied health professionals, clinicians and academics to share their reflections and research during our online workshop, "Generation COVID: Perinatal Transitions", which examines the impact of COVID-19 and social restrictions on pregnancy, childbirth, and early life/new parenthood in the UK. We hope to bring together voices invested in assessing and advocating for well-being from pregnancy through childhood, to shed light on the consequences and challenges of accessing perinatal healthcare and caring for the generation born amidst the pandemic.
Invited online talk
This is Cuba: Photographer's talk
Join British author, curator and photographer, Dr James Clifford Kent (Royal Holloway, University of London) for a talk on Cuba and photography.
Over the course of the past two decades Kent has travelled regularly to Cuba with different photographic projects; working in both urban and rural settings and collaborating with renowned Cuban photographers. Specialising in documentary and portrait photography – and using mainly iPhone, compact rangefinder cameras and natural light – his projects focus on wide ranging themes and subjects. From portraits of guajiros (Cuban peasants) and Cuban ballet dancers to coverage of historic events (including the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s funeral procession from Havana to Santiago de Cuba in 2016), Kent’s work has captured the changing face of the island and its people.
This talk represents an excellent opportunity to learn more about the stories behind his photographs as well as the people in front of the lens.
By invitation only.
For more information please use the contact form at the top of the page.
Human Landscapes: Storytelling and Surrealism in the work of Cuban photographer Raúl Cañibano
– Dr James Kent (Languages, Literatures & Cultures, Royal Holloway, University of London)
This talk will explore the work of one of Cuba’s greatest living photographers, Raúl Cañibano (b. Havana, 1961). It will reflect on the importance of storytelling in his various ongoing photo-essays, which date back to the early 1990s, and will examine surrealist influences at play in these wide-ranging bodies of work. It will also consider the influence Cañibano’s work has had on contemporary Cuban photography and the way it has been received by critics and different audiences outside the island.
This event will take place on Zoom and will be chaired by Dr John Perivolaris.
For more information, please contact:
James.Kent@rhul.ac.uk
Invited talk
Human Landscapes: Storytelling and Surrealism in the work of Raúl Cañibano
This talk will explore the work of one of Cuba’s greatest living photographers, Raúl Cañibano (b. Havana, 1961). It will reflect on the importance of storytelling in his various ongoing photo-essays, which date back to the early 1990s, and will examine surrealist influences at play in these wide-ranging bodies of work. It will also consider the influence Cañibano’s work has had on contemporary Cuban photography and the way it has been received by critics and different audiences outside the island.
Hosted by Jessica Hagley
Workshop
Beyond the Frame: Innovative approaches to curatorial and photographic practice in Havana, Cuba
This GCRF-funded photography workshop in Havana, Cuba focuses on the relationship between photography and audio-description. It will bring together British and Cuban experts, researchers and practitioners whose work involves curatorial and photographic practice and will involve reviewing the way we engage with and exhibit images in the gallery space. Dr James Kent and Prof Hannah Thompson will be working collaboratively with representatives from the Universidad de La Habana (UH), the Universidad de las Artes (ISA), the Fototeca de Cuba, and a number of Cuba’s leading photographers (Raúl Cañibano, Arien “Chang” Castán & Leysis Quesada Vera). The broader aim of the project is to design a plan for the delivery of school workshops relating to photography and visual storytelling that would impact positively on the personal and social wellbeing of Cuban school children, socio-economically marginalised groups and disabled people, engaging with key social issues in Cuban society that relate specifically to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (specifically SDG #4 Quality Education).
To read more about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, click here.
Photographer’s talk: Raúl Cañibano
Exhibition tour with Raúl Cañibano & Dr James Kent
Invited talk
Vicious Cities: Shadows of The Third Man in Our Man in Havana
(with Dr Christopher Hull)
Photo: The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed, 1949) © London Films
Photographer’s talk: Raúl Cañibano
Exhibition tour with Raúl Cañibano & Dr James Kent
This project (networking event/workshop) brings together Cuban experts, researchers and practitioners whose work involves curatorial and photographic practice (including collaborators from the Universidad de La Habana, the Universidad de las Artes (ISA), and the Fototeca de Cuba). With the aim of fostering sustainable societal development, the project will explore physical, social, cultural and technological barriers relating to curatorial and photographic practice, thus stimulating challenge-led interdisciplinary research and helping to foster equitable partnerships between British and Cuban academics, stakeholders and policymakers. Participants at project workshops will be encouraged to explore imaginative ways of producing, curating and talking about images. Focusing on the relationship between photography and audio-description, interactive workshops will involve workshop participants collaborating with other individuals and reviewing the way we engage with photography in the gallery space.
Join co-curator Dr James Kent on an exhibition tour as he discusses first-hand the research, insights, and stories behind the exhibition ‘This is Cuba: Documentary photography after Fidel’.
Exhibition
Following a period of momentous change for Cuba, signified by the end of the Castro era, this exhibition will explore contemporary documentary photography and its role in representing the country and its people both inside and outside the island. Showcasing work by world-renowned photographers such as Raúl Cañibano and Michael Christopher Brown, the exhibition will include previously unseen photographs that offer a snapshot of the changing face of Cuba.
Conference paper
This is Cuba: Fotografía documental cubana contemporánea
Invited talk
”¡Yo soy Fidel!”: Post-Castro Cuba and the Cult of Personality
Conference paper
”¡Yo soy Fidel!”: Post-Castro Cuba and the Cult of Personality
Workshop
Images and Words (Audio Description workshop)
(with Prof. Hannah Thompson)
Research seminar
“¡Yo soy Fidel!”: Post-Castro Cuba and the Cult of Personality