When we look at photographs taken by Raúl Corrales, not only do we see a faithful account of historical events captured with the agility of a reporter, but also an aesthetic dimension arising from sentimental ties with the subjects.
Each and every one of Corrales’s classic photographs is a vivid account and visual statement of his conscious identification with the ethical, political or cultural value of the themes.
This laureate artist’s purpose has never been to substitute painting nor to emulate it, and he does not involve himself in formal compositional, perceptive and sign searches to prioritize the experimental or plastic aspect. His success has been based on his ability to select the appropriate shot, the communicative snapshot and work in the laboratory, where he selects, prints and cuts the frames.
That is why one must see him as a professional who uses eye intuition to know what to photograph, a sensitive man who, through design, static dissolutions and chiaroscuro, transmits his way of seeing and symbolisms incarnated in the photograph’s iconic features .
Corrales has captured epic moments of the Cuban revolutionary process. His visions of the sixties survive in the archives and show the world daily life that became the scene of sowing and transformation.
Although, unlike the cult of the so-called ‘photo-live’, which in a sense responds to a dispassionate objectivity, Raúl’s photographs have also focused his passions, certainties and dreams. His work as a photographer has been deployed with responsibility, beginning with justice and heroism.
There is, however, another less well-known area of Corrales’s productions: his portraits and scenes of everyday life, records of things and individuals that have awakened his desire to turn them into a photographic configuration. There is no shortage of technical expertise, which makes it easier to obtain lyrical expression, or that sometimes involuntary tendency to achieve the plasticity of the medium with the mere filling of the camera.
For the visual creations of Cuba, Corrales is one of its biggest names. His work transcends testimony, leaving the appreciation of the beauty of reality and art to the spectator....his teaching, through the language of photography.