Image is everything

Paul Saitowitz

Photographer Michael Eastman lives in the moment ... and then he goes

and relives that moment time and time again. First in person, then on

spiraling rolls of celluloid and finally in larger-than-life prints.

“It’s the immediacy of photography, the way to catch something at

the particular time and space that has always drawn me to it,” he

said. “There really is nothing else like it. I mean, what could be

better than a 60th of a second.”

Eastman became enamored with the moments of life Walker Evans

captured in the 1950s and wanted to venture to a place where he could

encapsulate moments of his own in a similar vain.

The Communist, impoverished scenes of certain neighborhoods in

Havana, Cuba, remain essentially unchanged from the way they appeared

five decades ago. Enter Eastman.

Between 1999 and 2002, he made three trips to the city.

“It was just a place that showed what life was like back in 1952,

and that was exactly what I was looking for,” he said. “It was like

stepping back in time.”

After shooting thousands of images during that period, Eastman

spent months editing the shots down. Just 10 will be on display at

the SCAPE gallery in Corona del Mar.

“I decided to shoot as much as I possibly could and then worry

about editing later,” he said. “These 10 images are really all that

is needed. They sum up what I was trying to convey in my experiences

there.”

The photos feature living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and foyers of

homes built for aristocrats as early as the 1860s in an area of

Havana known as “Embassy Row.” Most of the houses are mansions built

by former sugar cane and tobacco barons.

Although they now seem hopelessly decrepit -- many of the homes

are in virtual ruins -- the starkness of the juxtaposition of an

edifice untouched by time with an interior that shows nothing but

time resounds.

One image depicts a room with an opulent chandelier that takes up

most of the ceiling with two formerly exquisite armchairs -- now

falling apart -- underneath it. The walls are crumbling, and a

laundry line with clothes on it is strewn across the room to show

that the house is still inhabited.

In addition to capturing the essence of an era gone by, the photos

underscore that poverty-stricken people now call former mansions

their homes.

“One of the houses just had a gaping hole right in the middle of

the roof,” Eastman said. “It was amazing the building was still

standing.”

Some of the locations for the photos were planned, but he gained

access to most of the shots by simply knocking on doors.

“The people there are really great,” he said. “They were very

accommodating to me. They may not love our government, but they love

Americans.”

Eastman’s “Cuba” will open Saturday night at SCAPE and will run

until Oct. 16.