I went with my wife Elizabeth to Cuba to attend the opening of a photo exhibition titled “The Revolution of Rock & Roll”. The show was at the Fototeca De Cuba Gallery and was organized by Chris Murray of the Govinda Gallery in Washington, DC. We had a great time in Cuba, the opening was a good party and I gave a slide talk at the gallery on Rock & Roll photography. I’ve been invited to come back in December to show my photos of John Lennon, who is well known and very respected in Cuba.

May 22 - Cuba - The John Lennon sculpture in Havana is impressive. It was made by Cuban Artist José Villa. Fidel Castro and Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament were part of the unveiling ceremony held in December 2000. "This place will always be a testimonial to struggle, a summoning to humanism. It will also be a permanent homage to a generation that wanted to transform the world, and to the rebellious spirit, innovative, of the artist who helped forge that generation and at the same time is one of its most authentic symbols", said Alarcon at the ceremony.

The sculpture is so natural looking and is in such a normal, peaceful neighborhood park that it feels very comfortable to sit and have a chat with the spirit of John Lennon. People come from all over Cuba, and all over the world, to visit with John and have a photo taken there. As you can see above, I couldn't resist the urge to sit down with him. It was very strange to see a bronze image of my friend, but also strangely very moving.

The crowd arrives for the opening and starts to come in. We had a large turnout, and people seemed impressed with the exhibition. The show had more than 50 photos by 28 photographers, including Baron Wolman, Anton Corbijn, Astrid Kirchherr, Mark Seliger, Mick Rock, Claude Gassian and Gered Mankowitz,and many others.

This is a bit blurry, but you get the idea of the people checking out the exhibition. The photos showed Rock & Roll from Elvis to Tupac Shakur. There were some great early Bob Dylan shots by Daniel Kramer and Bob Marley by Kate Simon. My photos of John Lennon in his NYCity shirt and the Ramones in front of CBGB were included in the show.

Author of several books on the Beatles, Ernesto Juan Castellanos, was at the opening with the very popular Radio Progresso host Guillermo Vilar. Ernesto's wife is next to Guillermo and between her and me is British photographer Jill Furmanovsky who also came to see her shots in the exhibit. Jill and I appeared on Guillermo's show, and I played the Clash & the Ramones for the first time ever in Cuba!

Nelson and his wife Lieudmilla showed some of their photos on the ground floor of the gallery. They have a series of images created with photos of the Revolution Monument in Havana with other scenes superimposed on them. Nelson said they work so well together that sometimes they don't know who took which photo.

May 24 - Cuba - On Friday I gave a slide talk at the gallery. The subject was Rock & Roll photography. Nelson translated so well for me that I was able to get some laughs, so I know they understood me. The talk was about an hour long and then everyone stayed and asked questions for another 45 minutes. I enjoyed it very much.