The New Cubans

ALMANAQUE-fotográfica

The New Cubans

Jean-François Bouchard

Solo show | Contemporary photography

ALMANAQUE-fotográfica is pleased to host The New Cubans, the first solo exhibition in Mexico by the Canadian artist Jean-François Bouchard, following exhibitions of this series in Havana, Toronto, South Korea, and the book of the series at Paris Photo 2025.

The exhibition showcases large-format staged-photography images with dramatic chiaroscuros of his work created in Cuba in close collaboration with a group of young Cuban artists.

“Amidst the countless hardships of life in Cuba and despite the present-day migration crisis, the younger generation is shaping a new reality defined by nonconformity, gender diversity, and resilient creative expression. The New Cubans is a visual journey into this lesser-known Cuba, uprooting the frequent cliché depictions seen abroad of Cuban cigars, all-inclusive resorts, and Cold War echoes.

Over recent years, an imperfect storm of global and local circumstances has reinvigorated Cuba’s creative and alternative subcultures like never before. Largely driven by the recent widespread Internet access and the relaxation of the embargo during the Obama administration, the younger generation has increasingly embraced global influences, while suffering from the dire economic context on the island.”  Jean-François Bouchard.

Bouchard’s cinematic photography illuminates the previously underreported youth culture of contemporary Cuba, revealing a polymorphic, intimate community in which personal expression and gender diversity are vivaciously celebrated. The New Cubans is compiled in a book with texts including an interview with renowned photographer, Yale professor and former Vice photo director Matthew Leifheit and an essay by Cuban art critic Jorge Peré. 

His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and festivals in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands and France. Artnet selected the In Guns We Trust exhibition as a “Must-see show in NYC,” while ArtForum selected his Exile from Babylon exhibition as an “Editor’s Pick” in early 2023.

His photographs have been published in The Washington Post, Stern Magazine, The Guardian, Wired, The British Journal of Photography, and many others. He is a winner of the Nannen Prize in Germany.