Habana Deco'

The original impetus behind this project was the desire to document the extraordinary richness, variety, and quality of Havana’s Art Deco’ architecture. Looking back at these photographs, photographer Duccio Malagamba is still glad he made the decision to undertake that adventure, despite the fact that the result of that effort, due to a series of circumstances, lay dormant for decades in a drawer in his studio.

There is no doubt that, the documentary value of the photographs remains intact—or perhaps increased, since it is possible that over these 30 years some of the works portrayed have succumbed to successive cyclones and lack of maintenance. The valuable aesthetic and compositional charge of the images does not seem to have been compromised by the passage of time. Today, however, alongside with the worn beauty of the buildings portrayed, what captures the viewer is the life that has been encapsulated in these photographs. A life frozen in most cases accidentally.

Born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1960, Duccio Malagamba moved to Barcelona after graduating with an Architecture degree, and for several years he worked as an architect. In 1989, he obtained a grant for researching contemporary Spanish architecture. This research rekindled his youthful interest in photography, and in 1991 he decided to devote himself professionally to it. In his more than 30 years as an architectural photographer, he has participated in various exhibitions, conferences and juries, and specialised rankings have often included him among the most influential architectural photographers in the world. Foreword by Zoé Valdés, a Havana-born writer, poet, and scriptwriter, who studied philology before leaving Cuba for self-exile in Paris in 1995. She has written numerous novels and collections of poetry, gaining fame for works such as La nada cotidiana (The Daily Nothing) and Te di la vida entera (I Gave You All I Had). Among other recognitions received, Valdés is Chévalier des Arts et des Lettres since 1996 and Medaille Vermeille de la Ville de Paris (2012).