Santeria religion, originally from Benin, followed the roads of slavery and persisted in the West indies and in Brazil.
In Cuba, it survived colonization, and later Castrism, by continuing its unobtrusive, though ubiquitous, practice in society.
Religion without a church, it is practiced in apartments, in parks, with keen interest and simplicity. I had the opportunity to attend purification rituals, divinations, sacrifices…. to finally realize that beyond the relationship to death, religious practice can be a source of pride, discipline and social bond.
My DNA as a photographer consists in recreating walls, full of meaning, from multiple sources. I seek to capture the beauty of materials, the poetry and politic traits.
For the Santeria project, to express Cubans spirituality, from portraits that I took, I chose to create stencils, in order to transform them into both anonymous and celebrity.
My portraits have found their place on walls in Havana and Santiago. Transformed into stencils, Santeria followers and symbols occupy a social and territorial space: their cities’ walls, where I’d like to expose them.
