Alfredo Ramos Fernández
from the series Surfing Buena Vista

from the series Surfing Buena Vista

© 2007 Alfredo Ramos Fernández and Katarzyna Badach

from the series Surfing Buena Vista
from the series Surfing Buena Vista
ArtistPolish-German, born 1975
CultureCuban
Titles
  • from the series Surfing Buena Vista
Date2007
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 11 × 11 in. (27.9 × 27.9 cm)
Frame (outer): 17 × 16 7/16 × 1 1/4 in. (43.2 × 41.8 × 3.2 cm)
Credit LineThe Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection, Gift of Madeleine and Harvey Plonsker
Object number2024.272
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

In Havana’s Buena Vista neighborhood, teenagers find few ways to combat boredom. Torrential rains provide one option: when the eagerly anticipated downpours arrive, teens go “surfing”—hanging off vehicles rolling through the flooded streets of the city. This sport is illegal and dangerous, but surfers feel they have little to lose besides the soles of their shoes. Responding to a call from the Huntington Beach Art Center in California for photo- graphs of surfing, the artists Alfredo Ramos Fernández and Katarzyna Badach offered a vision that contrasted with the blue skies, fair skin, and wealth typical of surfing images.

 

En el barrio habanero de Buena Vista, los adolescentes enfrentan el aburrimiento con pocas opciones. Durante las lluvias torrenciales, practican el “surf” colgándose de los vehículos por las calles inundadas. Aunque este peligroso pasatiempo está prohibido, los surfistas sienten que no tienen mucho que perder, aparte de las suelas de sus zapatos. En respuesta a una convocatoria del Huntington Beach Art Center en California para fotografías de surf, Alfredo Ramos Fernández y Katarzyna Badach ofrecieron una perspectiva que contrasta con la opulencia, las pieles claras y los cielos azules típicos de ese tipo de imágenes.


ProvenanceMadeleine and Harvey Plonsker, Glencoe, Illinois; given to MFAH, 2024.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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from the series Surfing Buena Vista
Alfredo Ramos Fernández
2007
Gelatin silver print
2024.271
from the series Surfing Buena Vista
Alfredo Ramos Fernández
2007
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from the series Surfing Buena Vista
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