The light in Cuban eyes - Lake Forest College

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. Plon-sker Collection of Contemporary Cuban Photography focuses on Cuban photography between 1992 and 2012. These years cover Cuba’s “Special Period,” a desperate time resulting from the with-drawal of financial support from the former Soviet Union that continues to present day.

The fifty artists represented in this bilingual book—includ-ing Juan Carlos Alom, Adrin Fernndez Milans, Marta Mara Prez Bravo, Cirenaica Moreira, and Glenda Len—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 re-stricted country, or through art world reputations that have only recently started to expand beyond the island.