Katy Parks Wilson’s show is opening at The Perfect Exposure gallery, the band is playing Cuban music and the bartender is pouring rum. Photographers please take note, if you want to put people in a good mood to look at your pictures this is a pretty good way to do it. The music isn’t random though, it fits because her show is pictures from Havana’s famed Tropicana nightclub. Made over a two year period they are colorful and filled with life.
For years the Tropicana existed in the face of conditions that closed almost every other vestige of the Glamorous Havana of old. But for the troupe of dancers, singers, musicians, choreographers, stage managers, lighting designers, costume- makers and everyone else who kept the Tropicana going in the face of a revolution, the party never stopped.
Says Katy, “When I visited Cuba with my camera in 2013, I was looking for signs of a society on the verge of transformation. I was looking for significance and beauty in the everyday jumble of vehicles, humans, construction and gerry-rigged machinery. When I had the chance of a night at the Tropicana, I was afraid it might be a departure from my theme. But I couldn’t help myself… I went anyway!
The Tropicana’s quintessentially Cuban show harkens back to its heyday when the audience might have included Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway or Rita Hayworth and the performers might have been Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole. Today, the authenticity of tight, oiled bodies gyrating close enough to feel breath on skin is… extremely present. Sex oozes unabashedly… and no t-shirts are being sold. These people dance for dancing. And I was witness.”
EXHIBITION
Inside Havana’s Tropicana Cabaret
Katy Parks Wilson
Until Saturday 5, March 2016
The Perfect Exposure gallery
3519 W 6th St,
Los Angeles, CA 90017
United States
http://www.theperfectexposuregallery.com
Story by Andy Romanoff www.andyromanoff.zenfolio.com
All Havana photos – Katy Parks Wilson /The Perfect Exposure Gallery
Opening evening photos – Andy Romanoff
