A photograph of an empty Cuban agricultural market has just been recognized in the prestigious "Pink Lady Food Photographer" contest, which annually awards the best photos on the subject of food from around the world.
"Empty Store, Cuba" by British photographer Jo Kearney, renowned in the food policy category, is a denunciation of the terrible shortage of food affecting the Cuban people.
The snapshot shows the empty establishment, without products or customers, where only a vendor is sitting, poorly dressed, and looking bored.
On the walls, two photographs of Fidel and Raúl Castro near an allegorical poster of May Day that serves as the culmination of all the nonsense of the place, with a phrase that reads: "Cuba in solidarity with the world."
The photo eloquently captures the Cuban reality and the serious crisis the country is going through, while the government insists on maintaining its worn-out and pathetic political propaganda.
In a place where groceries should be offered, poverty, apathy, and discouragement reign caused by the communist regime and its failure to address the real problems and needs of the people.
This is not Jo Kearney's first work on Cuba to be awarded in an international competition.
In 2023, he won the "International Portrait Photographer of the Year" in the environmental portrait category, with a photo taken in the humble home of an elderly woman in the Cuban capital.
"Sonia Hernández in her house in Havana" was the title she gave to her work. As she recounted then, she was walking around Havana, looking for people to photograph in their homes, when she passed by the lady's house, who was happy for the artist to come in and portray her.
"Havana has beautiful colonial buildings, but many are in a terrible state of disrepair," Kearney stated.
"And many of the large houses are divided and inhabited by multiple families. Often, each family has only one room, which they divide horizontally to create an additional bedroom upstairs. So many people live in tiny, miserable, and cramped spaces that I wanted to show the country's terrible economic situation," he noted.
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