Roberto Garaicoa.

Photo: Roberto Chile/Cubaperiodistas

“Photography is the only language that can be understood and understood by everyone” – Bruno Barbey

Roberto Garaicoa is a photojournalist with experience in the practice of photography, first as a hobby, then as a freelancer, and for years and until today, as a professional for the Cuban press.

The

Casa Editorial Verde Olivo

,

Cubadebate

and the

Round Table

are the main recipients of his snapshots.

In his free time, he unfolds his creative potential and offers us images of the city, flora, fauna, portraits and other experiments that show his technical mastery and his sensitivity for the visual arts.

—I love taking pictures: seeing, looking, feeling, thinking, capturing.

It is lucky to earn a living doing what one likes to do.

If you knew him only for his creations, the permanent presence of his work on social networks and his "Arte a 4 manos" together with Jesús Baena, you would think he was thirty years old.

Because Garaicoa, who is over sixty, does not let the young man who once picked up a camera and was tied to it forever escape from himself.

Those men are needed: those who are passionate about what they do and do not let time extinguish their will, enthusiasm and verve.

—In 1994, at the age of nineteen, you ventured into photography.

Where does that vocation of yours come from and how much did you have to overcome technically to become a photojournalist?

—My first job as a press photographer was at the

Round Table

.

There I took care of taking the photos for the website.

For almost two years I covered the program daily without receiving any salary, because I did not have any document that accredited me as a photographer.

“My preparation from the beginning was completely self-taught, accompanied by a family friend, Carlos Pasteur, who was introducing me to the practice of photography.

I learned about art history from books my father gave me.

Working with images always caught my attention, it was something that attracted me.

I started with the plastic arts, but later I decided on photography.

“During this coming and going, I enrolled in a photography course at the José Martí International Institute of Journalism at the suggestion of journalist Randy Alonso and it was then, after successfully completing it and receiving the graduation certificate, that I was able to start receiving a salary. for my work as a

Round Table

photographer .”

—What have been the most exciting coverages -or moments- of your work as a press photographer?

—All the moments have been interesting for me.

The day I don't take an image I'm not happy, because photography for me is a way of life.

I enjoy photographing.

However, when I covered the funeral of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, it was not like that.

They were intense days, of infinite pain, and at the same time, revolutionary effervescence.

I was one of the four or five photographers, very few, who reported the departure of our maximum leader towards the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.

Difficult moment, when from the MINFAR portal I saw the soldiers of the ceremony guard leave carrying on their shoulders the cedar urn with Fidel's ashes.

I didn't know whether to cry or take photos.

Funeral honors of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution.

Photo: Roberto Garaicoa

“The professional thing prevailed, of course, but I felt so moved, that at the moment I had to start my work, I did not realize that Raúl was less than two meters from my back.

That photo that I took of him instinctively, in profile, that I did not know at that moment how he had turned out, is in the book "Here comes Fidel" by the journalists Yuniet López and Wilmer Rodríguez ”.

Army General Raúl Castro.

Photo: Roberto Garaicoa

—Among your most relevant photographs, which one would you like to delve into and tell us what is behind it, that which cannot be seen in the painting?

—I was in coverage for Defense Day in the Great Tank Unit of Managua waiting for President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

When he arrived, he gave a tour of the unit, talked with us, with the soldiers under a radiant sun and immediately began the act.

“While Díaz-Canel addressed those present, microphone in hand and dressed in olive green, I was taking photographs.

Suddenly it got dark and a tremendous downpour began to fall.

Nothing, I told myself, the president with a current microphone in his hand, surely the act will be suspended until the rain stops.

I covered my camera with a nylon envelope to protect it and waited.

But the president continued speaking under the downpour, as Fidel did, and I said, to hell with the rain and the camera.

I took off the

nylon

and continued.

With this photograph I recorded that moment.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Photo: Roberto Garaicoa

—What has the profession of photographer contributed to you and what do you think has been your greatest contribution to the Cuban press?

—I am versatile in the profession of photography.

I work in different genres and styles.

My favorite genre is portraiture, which is the one that has given me the most work.

As a photographer I have had moments of satisfaction, achievements, disappointments, everything that life holds.

I have met countless people, I have gained friends, all thanks to my work in the press.

Now... my greatest contribution?

give the best of me.

Feeling that every time a coverage or photo report ends there is something worthwhile.

The press has also demanded of me responsibility, seriousness, truthfulness, ethics, and at the same time it has saved me from the unhealthy pride and arrogance into which any human being can fall, when it has cultivated two important virtues in me: simplicity and modesty.

Projectile.

Photo: Roberto Garaicoa

—The art of photography can be synthesized in seeing, looking, feeling, thinking, capturing.

How much do you enjoy all that creative process in the press coverage of your work and how pleased are you to go out with the camera to take pictures in frank freedom?

—I enjoy my job.

We photographers see others in a peculiar way, because we always look as if we were looking through the lens of the camera.

We see life in a different way and we represent that small virtual space of reality through photography truthfully.

“The press should not lie.

Neither does the image, because it shows what words cannot.

In the world, the image of the press occupies 70 percent of the information.

Par excellence, the human being tends to look at the images first and then read.

That is why press photography cannot fail, because it is the face of the event, of the news.

“I always carry my backpack on my shoulder.

Whether I work or not, I almost always go hunting with my camera, as we say in our slang, and when I return home, I take with me the images that I was able to capture during the day.

“I love taking pictures: seeing, looking, feeling, thinking, capturing.

It is lucky to earn a living doing what one likes to do.

In photos, gallery of images of Roberto Garacioa

youth and firmness

Those who know how to love

rose and thorn

Pelican

iron youth

Projection

Portrait

(Taken from

Cubaperiodistas

)