Private Story
Manifesto del agua 76
Cuba: a tropical island, a communist state. Water is officially stated to be a human right in article 76 of the in 2019 newly inaugurated Constitution. One of communist promises is to provide clean drinking water to all of the population, an ideal that is hindered by a multiplicity of challenges, such as climate change, an outdated water system and the USA-embargo. Nonetheless, in a non-digitalized society an army of workers is sent to the streets to guarantee fresh water, such as water truck drivers, doctors, fumigators and inspectors of water tanks. This project highlights both the informality of the bureaucratic system and the inventiveness of the Cuban population to deal with their daily water challenges. The theme of water gives a profound insight in contemporary communist Cuba.
These images are a work-in-progress form my long-term documentary project on Cuba’s hidden water crisis. They are the result from a first fieldwork-trip in April-May. My next trip is planned for a month in January/February 2020. I was granted the Dutch Fund for Special Journalist Projects and the Anna Cornelis Fund for documentary photography for this project. It will result in several international publications and my first photobook published by Amsterdam University Press.
APPLICATION GUILD MENTORSHIP
Apart from input on editing and preparing for a photobook, I would like to apply for the Guild Mentorship as I am still looking for a way to make my ‘business’ more sustainable. Although it is only since the last year that I have had some victories ánd I am making a more or less acceptable living, due to different grants, I still don’t see how it is possible to live from documentary photography on a long-term. Whatever I have achieved until now does not correspond to the input in hours. I dedicate my life fully to self-initiated projects, applications and recovery from the many rejections. I know that I would like to live from a combination of my own projects on Latin America, NGO-assignments and reportage-assignments in The Netherlands. I would like to get mentoring of how to find paid opportunities in my field.
In addition, I will be working on the Cuba project I have presented in my application, and on a project in Europe on citizen-driven responses to climate-change). I want to get advice of how to make these projects successful. This might be on the level of the content: storytelling, sequencing and editing-wise, but also where to pitch (beyond newspapers and magazines) and how to create an income out of it.
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