Is a trip to Cuba in your future? Learn about contemporary Cuban photography and get tips on traveling to this fascinating, newly accessible nation. This slide program will be presented by art collector and philanthropist Madeleine Plonsker, a longtime Glencoe resident and the author of The Light in Cuban Eyes (Lake Forest College Press). Copies will be available for signing and purchase at the event.

In 2002, art collector and philanthropist Madeleine P. Plonsker began traveling to Cuba to uncover Havana’s thriving art scene. The Light in Cuban Eyes: Lake Forest College’s Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection of Contemporary Cuban Photography focuses on Cuban photography between 1992-2012. These years cover Cuba’s “Special Period,” a desperate time resulting from the withdrawal of financial support from the former Soviet Union that continues to present day.               

The 50 artists who comprise this bilingual book—including Juan Carlos Alom, Adrián Fernández Milanés, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Cirenaica Moreira, and Glenda León—shoot their worlds in styles ranging from fabulist to gritty. This is world-class work, yet the artists are often known only to the small population of collectors fortunate enough to have traveled to this tightly restricted country, or through art world reputations that have only recently started to expand beyond the island.

Lake Forest College’s Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection of Contemporary Cuban Photography is composed of 170 pieces; The Light in Cuban Eyes is the first North American publication with support from the Cuban Ministry of Culture and Fototeca de Cuba, Cuba’s repository of photography comparable in function to the Smithsonian Photography Department in Washington, D.C.