Robert Polidori
Señora Faxas Residence, No. 1, Miramar, Havana, Cuba, 1997
Chromogenic print (Fuji Crystal Archive)
40 x 50 inches
Collection of Lora and Martin Weinstein

In documenting the decaying structures and interior spaces of Havana, Robert Polidori seeks to expose the traces of memory that exist just beneath the surfaces of buildings, streets, and living spaces. Using a large-format camera to produce richly detailed, vibrantly colored photographs, Polidori focuses on the elements of a room that hint at memory and meaning. Before Fidel Castro took control of the city and seized private property in the 1950s, Havana enjoyed an economic boom that resulted in the construction of numerous palatial mansions. The once-grand architecture that filled the city is now crumbling, and mansions like this one are left to display the stains of history that have collected under decades of political and social unrest.