Another page about somebody…

Hi there! I’m Dave and this is something about me.

I was born in 1989, in La Habana, Cuba… a tropical paradise ‘as seen in some movies’ for some but not for the majority; were I was included. I grew up in a middle-class really short family; raised by a single mom and my beloved great grandma.

Since a child, everybody knew I was not meant to become the doctor in the family. Studied pottery first, then drawing and lastly music, all in the same school and in a 3 year period. So I think maybe I wasn’t the office-guy of the future.

After graduating from High-School I decided Computer Science was my ‘thing’. So three years after I had a bachelor degree in something I would had never imagined. Remember the middle-class family? So did I and went straight to work in a country where the average salary was about $10 USD/month.

I worked for 5 years as a software developer/web designer in DeSoft S.A, but that company gave me the opportunity to start taking post grades courses. The one that would then change my life -again- was a Graphic Design Major.

Long story short, I quit and started doing freelance as a graphic designer for a local private sign shop in Cuba. I’m now 24 years old, almost 6 years after graduating and still not sure I’ve found my true passion. My days had become designing in the morning and web developing at night. Two years of heavily smoking and stress; but the end result was 2 new systems: a social media platform -Facebook alike- that people could access through a Wi-Fi hotspot me and a friend carried everywhere… and an app to manage orders, sales and inventory for restaurants using the same Wi-Fi principle. These were firsts of its kind in Cuba, just because we were one of the few countries -at that time- with limited access to the internet.

In 2015 I was only doing some web development and graphic design from home when a client asked if I knew how take professional photos. I had never, but why not trying right? I decided to give it a try and went straight into a whole new chapter in my life.

My first step into photography was in the Creative Photography School of Havana (Escuela de Fotografia Creativa de La Habana) and then, more seriously within the National Union of Writers and Artist of Cuba UNEAC (Union Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba) where I was gifted the opportunity to learn from Alberto “El Chino” Arcos; one of the greatest photographers and storytellers of Cuba. I found myself loving the art of photographing concepts, ideas, emotions… I was able for the first time in my entire live to feel that I was truly creating something.

Since then, since that old Canon T3i with an 18-55 kit lens I never stopped taking photos. Got involved with musicians, painters and writers and started doing a lot of portrait sessions. Then that led me to also experiment with music videos. I kept doing personal projects and experimenting with conceptual photography which by the end of 2016 got me into my first exposition.

… [going to bed, I’ll continue tomorrow]