Vibrant, rebellious portraits of young Cubans

A new photobook captures the young people redefining Cuban identity amidst increased economic and political turbulence on the Caribbean island.

One afternoon a couple of years ago, Montreal-based photographer Jean-François ‘JF’ Bouchard went to a home in the centre of Havana, the capital city of Cuba. The house belonged to local legend and former National Ballet of Cuba dancer Tommy Reyes, and a friend of Bouchard’s was shooting a music video there. Crossing the threshold, he was taken back through time, passing cabinets topped with vintage trinkets and walls covered floor to ceiling with framed photographs. It was only the cast of the video
– young, tattooed and dressed in BDSM gear – that reminded him of the century he was in.

“I walked into what I expected it to be – a quintessential, traditional Cuban home in central Havana,” Bouchard recalls. “And then I’m plunged into this group of young people shooting a music video, and every single one of them could have been plucked from LA, Berlin or London, and it felt like such an underworld that was so vibrant and eclectic.”

A portrait he took that day – of a couple named Katharine and Félix seated across from each other with Katharine dressed in a rope harness and puffing on a cigar – now features in his new photobook The New Cubans. Having first visited the northern Caribbean island in the early 90s and travelled back regularly since, Bouchard has witnessed new generations of young people redefining Cuban identity. He began to notice a change around 2016, when the internet and social media began to become more accessible.

“I started seeing a new phenomenon – for the first time, youth culture was greatly impacted by what they were witnessing from around the world,” he says. “Access to the internet was very a cumbersome affair back then. You had to go into parks and they had Wi-Fi stations, so you saw people standing with laptops in parks – it was very weird – but then in 2019 it accelerated because of smartphones and it became very ubiquitous.”

Downloading Instagram gave them greater connectivity with each other, but also other young people across the world and they could easily see alternative ways of life and fashion. “They all got on it – I’ve never seen a young Cuban who is not on Instagram,” he continues. “Sometimes people introduce themselves using their Instagram [handle] as opposed to their names. Beyond the usual clichés that we think of [about Cuba], there’s a very progressive, modern, youth culture that is both inspired by what’s happening in the rest of the world and these younger folks are also bringing their own flavour and creativity to the mix.”

Bouchard’s portraits give an insight to those styles, with young Cubans photographed within their homes or in private spaces – in often lavish outfits, rocking confident hairstyles, and challenging traditional barriers of gender conformity – with the country’s unique architecture and visual style forming a dramatic backdrop. “I wanted the images to be a reflection of how they represent themselves on Instagram,” he explains. “So I let them dictate how they would dress, how they would stand, etc.”

For many who grew up in Cuba, the setting that they call home is growing increasingly tough. Between 2022 and 2023, over one million people left the island in a migration crisis caused by economic hardships, political turbulence and a six decades long embargo from the USA. Employment opportunities are limited for young people, and coming out of the pandemic many decided that their only hopes lay across waters. “That’s 10 per cent of the population – it’s unprecedented,” says Bouchard, who saw friends and collaborators leave as he was making the project. “One is in Brazil, one Canada, a bunch in the US, Italy, Spain, Dubai – all across the world.

“The people who stay behind – they lose friends, family members, their social circles disintegrate,” he continues. “So a lot of the images I made acquired a nostalgic feel – they turned out to be mementos of lost love and friendships.”