For over 25 years, I kept a list of subjects I wanted document though was unable to, largely due to access.
I was inspired to create 90 Miles in the tradition of reportage illustration, in 2023, when the general public gained the ability to collaborate with a collective history of photography in order to create photorealistic visions of what was, is or can be.
Reportage illustration has been used for over 150 years in journalistic publications, to convey a narrative or report a specific moment, and in a way has been around since the dawn of civilization.
90 Miles reflects a novel way to potentially effectively translate certain stories using photographic looking imagery, connecting people with important stories of our time.
90 Miles is an AI reporting illustration experiment exploring the decades long story of Cuban’s crossing the 90 miles of ocean separating Havana from Florida. The imagery speaks to the Cuban realities and historical events that motivated Cubans to escape, mostly via homemade watercraft of some kind.
I learned of this journey of escape over many years, watching TV and reading newspapers while growing up in America.
While working in Cuba from 2014-2016, I attempted to document the story but realized that any coverage might risk endangering Cubans who remained in the country. There was just no safe and ethical way for me to either access or document this story IRL.
I gathered the AI prompts from past conversations with Cubans while working in Cuba, from my life long exposure to the story and through online research. The work is based on true stories but is, of course, not real.
This story begins following the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Cuba experienced dramatic political and economical changes. The imagery documents the time period from Fidel Castro’s rise to power in the late 1950s until the present.
Today, 60 years later, a lack of economic opportunity still remains arguably the largest motivator for an escape.
The Cubans who attempt the crossing are incredibly resourceful, which is reflected in their rafts assembled from inner tubes, pieces of wood and plastic, household supplies, etc.
Nearly a 1/2 million Cubans fled in 2022 and 2023, when Cuba experienced its largest exodus since the 1980s due to an ongoing economic crisis, with soaring inflation alongside shortages of food and medicine.
This imagery has not been edited, in any way, post generation.
