14 Days in Cuba, 2023: Beauty and hardship, side by side.

Three children and a man behind rusted jail bars, inside a cell. The youngest child leans on the bars, while the man is shirtless, wearing striped shorts, and holding a small child who is eating a snack.

These photographs are from one 14-day trip to Cuba in 2023. I arrived with a camera, but I left with a deeper respect for what daily life asks of people when the basics are not guaranteed.

Some days it was hard for us to find bottled water. For us that was an inconvenience. For people living it every day, water is a constant problem, especially when infrastructure fails and service is uneven. The shortages didn’t stop there. The country was already deep in a crisis marked by scarcity of food, fuel, and medicine, and you could feel that reality in the lines, the empty shelves, and the quiet bartering.

We moved through neighborhoods where people kept going anyway. Haircuts, boxing gyms, kids in the street, families on stoops, music carrying out of doorways. And then the interruptions: long waits, closed shops, and blackouts that cut the day in half and reshape what’s possible.

I didn’t want to make postcards. I wanted the pictures to feel like being there, the heat, the improvisation, the pride, and the patience. The hardship is real, but so is the way people show up for each other and keep building a life inside it.

An elderly man in Cuba with a cap playing an acoustic guitar on a street steps, smiling, with a weathered background.
Black and white photo of a worn city street in Cuba with old buildings, laundry hanging on a balcony, and a few people walking on the sidewalk.
Black and white photo of a young boy in Cuba looking out of an open window in a worn wall, resting his chin on his hand and gazing at the camera with a serious expression.
Four young boys in Cuba sitting and crouching on the sidewalk against a wooden door, with close attention to their expressions and body language, in black and white.
A shirtless man with tattoos in Cuba putting a saddle on a horse in an outdoor setting.
A family in Havana Cuba standing behind rusted metal bars, looking out. One boy is shirtless, wearing checkered shorts, and holding a young child on his shoulders. A young girl with a bracelet is standing in front, leaning on the bars.
Black and white photo of a man and woman sitting in the backseat of an old car, looking towards the camera, with a rural background visible through the windows.
Black and white photo of a city square at night, featuring a tall monument with a statue at the top, a high-rise building to the left, and a church or historic building in the background. A blurred car is moving across the foreground.
A person tending to horses in the rain, with trees and buildings in the background, under a thatched roof.
A black and white photo of a barber giving a haircut to a man inside a barber shop. The barber is an older man with glasses and a beard, wearing a white coat. The man getting the haircut is seated with a barber cape, and there is a woman walking outs
A person in a black shirt climbs over a rocky surface near the ocean during sunset, captured in black and white.
Two elderly men working on a wheel in a small, rustic workshop in Cuba, with one sitting and using a power tool on the wheel and the other sitting in the background. The workshop has shelves with various objects and a worn door.
Close-up view of a motorcycle's side mirror reflecting a man wearing sunglasses and a helmet, with a busy city street scene in black and white.
A woman with a large black and white umbrella standing next to a black cat in front of a metal gate on a textured wall.
A man sitting in a vehicle, holding a large stack of money close to his face, with the background showing an urban setting through the window.
A man wearing a hat standing next to a saddled horse in a jungle setting.
A young boxer sitting on a bench in a gym, with boxing gloves and shorts, resting or reflecting.
An elderly man in Cuba with a weathered face smoking a cigar, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a plaid shirt outdoors.
Black and white photo of a man in a garage filled with old, dusty, and abandoned cars. The man is standing near the front of a car, holding cloths or rags, with other vintage cars parked behind him. The garage appears cluttered with various automotiv
A young male boxer practicing a punch in a boxing gym, shirtless and sweating, with a focused expression.
A young boy sitting on a bicycle rickshaw on a street, with a building wall in the background, in black and white.
A woman with tattoos, large hoop earrings, and a septum piercing, sitting on a bench, holding a cigarette and a phone, wearing a black sleeveless top and ripped jeans.
View through a window into a restaurant kitchen with a chef preparing food in the foreground and two smiling women behind the counter.
People swimming in the ocean near rocky shore, one person jumping into the water, others waiting on rocks.
Black and white photo of a man in Cuba wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a light-colored shirt outdoors.
A group of people riding in an open wooden truck on a rural road in Cuba, surrounded by trees, with some waving and others looking around, in black and white.
A woman with a headwrap and off-shoulder top holding a violin and a bow, standing outdoors in Cuba.
A man and boy sitting on a bench on a ferry; the man is looking at his phone, and the boy is looking to the side. There are two women sitting further down, one holding a fan in Cuba.
Four people standing beside a horse-drawn cart on a rural dirt road in Cuba, with trees and a cloudy sky in the background.
A person jumping off a rocky surface into the water under a cloudy sky in Havana Cuba, captured in black and white.
Four people sitting on a concrete pier near the water in Havana Cuba, engaging in conversation, with drinks and snacks around them, during the daytime.