Juan Manuel Munoa.

Photo: Roberto Chile/Cubaperiodistas

"You don't do photography with just the camera, you do it with all the images you've seen, with all the books you've read, with all the music you've heard, and with all the people you've loved" Ansel

Adams

One thing is time and another is life.

When a man devoted to his trade, serves, fights and perseveres, his spirit does not age and his body -loaded with years- shows itself upright and firm.

That happens to Juan Manuel Muñoa, who at 88 is still standing, drawing time with his gaze and his heartbeat.

"My greatest contribution is having been at the right time and place and having been able to perpetuate moments that will go down in history."

There have been so many experiences, missions inside and outside Cuba, moments and emotions lived by this photojournalist, that it would take hundreds of pages to recall them all.

A few brief words from him and a handful of photographs chosen almost at random are enough to glimpse his career in Cuban journalism.

"Half a century, it is easy to say, but it has been a long road."

Time goes by.

Not life.

That remains eternalized in a work that more than a life is many lives, an infinite number of moments, a vivid history.

In 1965 you started working as a cameraman at the Noticiero Nacional de Televisión.

How did you get to that square?

—I came to television in 1961. I started as a study assistant, which has been a “utility”.

I got better and a short time later I evaluated myself as a boom man, who is the one who leads the microphone in film or television studios.

Later I went to work in the kinescope department where I learned how to operate movie cameras.

Until I applied for a call to work as a cameraman at the National Television News.

That was already in 1965, when I was part of the group that attended the addresses of Commander Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Revolutionary Government.

José Manuel Muñoa in his beginnings.

Photo: courtesy of the interviewee

Seven years later, in 1973, you joined Prensa Latina as a photojournalist.

Why did you decide to change the television camera for the photographic one?

—Because in the midst of all that hustle and bustle I discovered photography and it captivated me.

So I started working as a photojournalist at Prensa Latina, an agency to which I have dedicated the best years of my life and where I still remain.

This year you will celebrate 50 years of uninterrupted work as a photojournalist for Prensa Latina.

There you have completed countless missions.

What do you feel when you look back and review all those years?

"I feel great emotion.

It has been 50 years of continuous work, accompanying Fidel and other leaders and personalities in acts and tours, covering national and international events, capturing images of historic moments in Cuba and other countries where camera in hand I fulfilled my professional duties with rigor and responsibility.

Half a century, it is easy to say, but it has been a long road.

Fidel and Torrijos.

Photography: Juan Manuel Muñoa

Of all your images, is there one that you would like to discuss or simply reflect on?

—For me, all the images that I was able to capture in my life have a particular meaning, but the ones that I took of the Commander at different times and different places in the country, have a special relevance, because in each one of them I feel that I am turning it back. let's see.

For example, this one in which he raises both hands at the same time -look at the fingers of one hand and the other in almost perfect symmetry- is one of my favorites.

When I look at this photo, I not only see his face and his hands, I also hear him, I'm sorry, I am transported to that moment when, as so many times, he spoke to the people.

Remember is to live again.

Fidel Castro speaks to the people.

Photography: Juan Manuel Muñoa

What moments of the many lived have left you with the deepest memories?

—There were many moments in Angola, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Benin, where I covered armed conflicts that sometimes took place there at risk to my life.

And of course, in Cuba.

My greatest contribution is having been at the right time and place and having been able to perpetuate moments that will go down in history.

About to turn ninety years old and come such a long way in the Cuban press.

What's left to do?

Have you thought about hanging up your gloves yet?

—Yes, I think the time has come to hang up the gloves and give way to the youngest.

it is the law of life.

But I don't think, nor is it in my plans, to abandon photography.

The camera fills me with life and gives me strength.

Just as some colleagues helped me in my early days in the media, I have helped my younger colleagues, motivating them to excel, as I did with Oseni, Amores, Tomasito (the crab), Duma and others.

It is the best that one can do, support and guide those who come after, so that the work continues and is perfected.

Do you dare to transmit a message to the photojournalists of today and those of tomorrow?

—I would tell them to always work with passion and care.

The Revolution offers opportunities to everyone and those opportunities cannot be neglected, quite the contrary, we must take advantage of them to grow.

In these modern times, technology advances rapidly, and although the roots of the profession are the same, it is essential to improve technically and aesthetically to evolve and achieve better and better photographs.

That they study, experiment, break schemes and try to be better professionals, and above all, better human beings.

In photos, image gallery of Juan Manuel Muñoa

Raul Castro.

The Commander in Chief The Commander in Chief Fidel Castro at the inauguration of the International Pioneers Camp July 26 in Varadero.

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro at the inauguration of the Ramón Paz Explorers Pioneer Camp, Santo Domingo, Sierra Maestra.

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro at the inauguration of the Ramón Paz Explorers Pioneer Camp, Santo Domingo, Sierra Maestra.

In the closing ceremony of the II FMC Congress, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro greets Angela Davis.

XI Festival of Youth and Students.

Galleon in Havana.

Troop and children in Angola.

Angolan woman.

(Taken from Cubaperiodistas)