In 2009, I travelled to Cuba, where I spent two weeks photographing Havana and its people. When openMagazine launched the challenge to illustrate the question “Shoot an Answer,” I immediately thought of that trip and this image.

Near the “Barrio Chino,” an old lady walked right past me with a habano in her mouth. Despite her age and small stature, which at first gave her a fragile and delicate appearance, she moved so quickly that I almost missed the shot. Only later did I realise that, despite the blur, or maybe precisely because of it, this photo became one of my favourite street shots. It was illustrated with the following description:

Between worn streets and light filtered by decades of history, I photographed an intimate journey in Havana. Still, I deeply connected to the city and its inhabitants, in a record somewhere between street shooting and spontaneous portraiture, an almost documentary approach, but always personal. It was common to end up having dinner or coffee with those portrayed, the best part of the trip.
This image, in particular, was born from one of these encounters, but without relational consequences. The question she answers – “Are we shooting in the dark?”- goes beyond the literal. It is a reflection on the act of photographing itself: on the attempt to capture the other without knowing them, to tell an emotion in an instant. Like a shot in the dark, photography becomes a quest, never completely technically successful. Blur moves from error to time, motion, and uncertainty.
Travelling alone opens up space for a different way of listening. The relationship with the other becomes direct, stripped, and immediate. That’s how, day after day, I built this set of images, brief but intense encounters with faces that carry life in their bodies and in their gaze.

OpenMagazine, “Shoot an Answer” number 1, week 1, 2025