Anyone who knows Raúl Abreu knows for sure that he is a person dedicated body and soul to his profession, photography, which he considers more than his job: his life, his passion, his vice and a great enjoyment because, with every click, he feels the adrenaline flowing.
“My motivation; looking back and now aware of the relationship that exists between photography and the plastic arts, I started as a child, because I always walked around with a little notebook drawing everything that caught my attention,” he recalled in an interview with this magazine.
Abreu was one of the first children to study at the “Ciudad Libertad” primary school –a building that until 1959 was the Columbia military camp–, where he was selected to be part of the “Children Painters of Cuba” workshop for his drawing skills.
Despite having managed to enter the San Alejandro Art School at only 14 years old, due to family problems he could not finish his studies in the specialty, although he did acquire basic knowledge that allowed him to enter the world of photography.
He took his first images when his firstborn was born in 1975, with a 35mm Smena camera, and it can be said that this is how the life of one of the most prestigious and experienced photographers in Cuban press began.
Awarded in numerous competitions and decorated with several distinctions awarded by the Cuban State, Abreu has extensive professional experience for having worked in important media outlets in the country.
His extensive resume includes various coverages of national and international events: he was a war correspondent in the People’s Republic of Angola (1981-1983) and o!icial photographer of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, from 1984 until December 2012, among many other responsibilities.
As for exhibitions, there are nearly a hundred, between personal and collective, which gives an idea of the quality of his work.
“Working at the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP, in Spanish), in its laboratory, allowed me to learn all about the chemicals used to achieve a good development and a good impression, and learn about curatorial techniques for the future mounting of my exhibitions,” he explained.
His first published photos, already as a professional, were those taken at the 11th Festival of Youth and Students in 1978 and from that moment he was lucky enough to meet and connect with great Cuban photographers such as Félix Arencibia, Korda, Corrales, Liborio Nodal, Roberto Salas, Moré, Ernesto Fernández, who can be said to have been his guides.
When answering a question about the topic that most attracts him when doing his work, he expressed: “The genre that I am most passionate about and to which I have dedicated the most time in my professional life is documentary photography, the kind that commits you and of which you are also a parte of, and with just one click you can capture the precise moment, the unique event. They are the ones that stay for a lifetime and that today, without a doubt, are part of the history of our country.
As for the importance he gives to photography today, Abreu believes that “the digital age has taken its role to a new height.”
“We are living in a world obsessed with photographic images. Social networks, society, advertising and journalism depend heavily on visual quality. Today photographers have a platform to expose their art and their work to the world and thanks to this great development achieved by digitization, you can expose your photo in real time,” he assured.
“Being a photographer,” he continued, “is more than taking an image with a mobile phone or any camera, it is a feeling that, more than mastering the technique, requires vocation, passion, dedication and an exceptional ability to communicate through the image. Versatility and creativity are essential qualities to succeed in a field as dynamic and competitive as photography is today.”
“For this reason, my advice for those starting out in this art, regardless of the fact that they must meet all of those qualities mentioned previously, is that they must stay updated on how photography is developing in the world, on new technologies. They must see exhibitions, see the work done by other professionals, to see new trends and, above all, never settle for the first good image made, because the second one can be even better,” he commented.
Finally, he asserted that if he were to be born again, he would of course be a photographer because “it’s my life, it’s my personal passion, it’s my vice… every photographic project is a challenge, every class I teach is a challenge and, at the same time, I nourish myself, I live learning from the children and young people,” he emphasized.
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Raúl Abreu
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