Cherchez La Femme

This photographic essay by Luc Chessex comprises black-and-white images he made while in Cuba in the 1960s, now in the collection of the Musée de l’Elysée. Chessex departed Lausanne for Havana in 1961, with the idea of having an intense cultural, political and existential experience far from home. At the time, the country was still undergoing its transition towards a young and creative socialism, with visionary leaders who skilfully fuelled the spectacle of revolution. Chessex quickly integrated into Cuban society, working as a photographer for the Ministry of Culture. His free and critical reportage of women in Cuba tells another side of its history. With a text by Daniel Girardin