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MBP Presents: Cuba TV
August 8, 2011
Contact: Kate Abbey-Lambertz
Telephone: 718.314.8000
New York, NY - August 8, 2011 – In Cuba TV, photographer Simone Lueck turns her 35mm lens away from the street and towards the interior lives of Cuba’s residents. During a trip to Havana in 2000, Lueck was transfixed by the glowing television screens—while the streets were pitch black at night, the TVs were always on, their light emanating from front windows. Inviting herself into private homes, Lueck came to know and photograph Cuba through its people.
The TV sets in Cuba TV are rickety and revered, serving as table space for altars and becoming altars themselves. In Cuba, media is controlled by the government, but in Lueck’s images the few television stations show a range of programs, from soap operas to a rally. Some sets are broken: one a flower stand, one covered by a poster, several sitting blank, but each is still the center of the room. Lueck’s photographs radiate a “burning stillness,” writes Daniel Kraus. With empathy and ease, Lueck created a portrait of the inner Cuba, “bopping along the streets of Havana, knocking on doors and winding her way to each home’s flickering heart.”
Simone Lueck is a Los Angeles-based photographer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her work is marked by an interest in American cultural territory colored by notions of identity and performance. She received her MFA from UC San Diego in 2005 and an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual photographer’s fellowship in 2004. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Tijuana, and Madrid. Cuba TV is showing at Kopeikin Gallery from July 16 to August 27, 2011.
Mark Batty Publisher is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses. Today, the visual comes at us from more places than ever, and its dissemination is faster and more advanced every year. Books from Mark Batty Publisher capture this acceleration on the pages of every book. Affordable, well designed, thoughtfully created, and produced to last, MBP books are artful products that readers want to hold onto forever.
Cuba TV
Simone Lueck
Pub Date: August 2011
Page Count: 80
Size: 8.5 x 8.5 inches
Format: Hardcover
Price: $34.95
ISBN: 978-1-935613-26-8
For a review copy, more information, or to schedule an interview with the author, contact Kate Abbey-Lambertz at 718.314.8000 or kate@markbattypublisher.com.
