Havana Old Timers: Vintage Cars in Havana Cuba

Photos from Cuba showing a spruced up vintage car in front of the Capitolio in Havanna-City are sufficiently well known from guide books, photo collections and travel brochures. Placed next to elderly, rum drinking tourists or a Che Guevara puffing away at his cigar, they represent old clichés.

In this case, however, it is about a serial representation of vintage cars allowing a more accurate comparison of the individual models. And photos presenting them in a matter-of-fact and identifiable way. We are shown highlights of several hundreds of photos that were taken of a variety of vehicles. Some cars are almost new and well restored, while others are without wheels and out of use. Up until The Revolution in 1960, Cuba was the largest importer of American Cars, mostly the huge, gas-guzzling, multi-ton pile of metal that so many of us look back on today as a romantic relic of the past.

When joining together these individual models to become an integral whole as a series or collage, we are no longer given the impression of single automotive jewels to be found, but of demonstrating a whole network of vehicles covering the city. The 1.80m x 1.35m original of Kalak's representation of "Vintage Cars in Havanna" was produced in 2008. It combines 18 cars in the form of a collage, always a sequence of 3 lined up
in 6 rows

thomas kalak
www.thomaskalak.com