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Gente de Cuba: A collection of captivating portraits by Isabella Palumbo

Cuba will always hold a special place in my heart, after a trip there last year. The candy coloured cars and buildings, the warmth of its weather, and people, and the dazzling sea and sky are just some of the reasons it's one of the most authentically beautiful places on earth (in my humble opinion).

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Elderly Cuban woman wearing a white headwrap and yellow floral top, smoking a cigar in a rural setting with tropical plants behind her

This sentiment is also shared by photographer, Isabella Palumbo. In her upcoming exhibition at MostArt Centre, London, Gente de Cuba is a collection of street portraits made during Palumbo’s two-month stay on the island last year.

She spent the time walking the streets, talking with people and listening to their stories. The photographer says: “I loved Cuba. I loved the Cubans. They dance, they love, and they live simply and with pure joy. Everything seems easy when the sun is always shining, there is music in the street, people are dancing, the fun in contagious.

"Unfortunately the reality of the country is very different and quite far from being easy, a country with a charming and complicated history that is fighting to find its own identity in the world."

Isabella Palumbo was born in Milan, Italy, and graduated from the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan in 2009. She moved to the UK in 2010 and currently works for the Yoox-Net-A-Porter Group as a photographer. She loves reportage photography and travelling alone. She likes fashion but just the social aspect of it, and she loves walking on sunny days in vintage markets.

MostArt Centre presents “Gente de Cuba” by Isabella Palumbo from 27 February – 26 March 2017 at 86 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16 7PA. For more information, visit most-art.co.uk.

Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of MostArt Centre / Copyright of Isabella Palumbo

Man wearing black baseball cap and yellow shirt, looking downward, against a red corrugated metal background
Three Cuban locals sit and stand against a vibrant red wall outside a colonial building with wooden doors
An older Cuban man wearing a straw cowboy hat and light blue shirt smiles whilst smoking a cigar
Elderly man wearing a straw hat and white shirt, smoking a cigar against a red and yellow wall in Cuba
Woman standing in a weathered doorway beside a bicycle leaning against a blue-painted wall in Cuba
Man in navy shirt crouching outside a yellow storefront with red text reading "La casa del Churro" and "Churro Saborizado
Portrait of an older Cuban man with grey hair and beard wearing a grey t-shirt against a yellow wall, from Isabella Palumbo's Gente de Cuba series
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