Ernesto Bazan
Ernesto Bazan was born in Palermo, Italy, in 1959. He received his first camera when he was 14 years old and began photographing daily life in his native city and in the rural areas of Sicily. Photography has been more than a profession: a true passion, a mission in his life.
Bazan has published five monographs of his work including The Perpetual Past (1983), and Passing Through (1992). In 2008 he launched BazanPhotos Publishing and has released three books: BazanCuba (2008), Al Campo (2011), and Isla (2014). The trilogy of books on Cuba is the result of 14 years of Bazan’s life and photography on the island: Bazan Cuba is an intense and intimate black-and-white poem about life in Cuba. Al Campo is an in-depth color exploration of the Cuban countryside. Isla is a black-and-white panoramic love affair and goodbye to the island.
He has won some of the world’s most prestigious photographic awards, among them The W. Eugene Smith Grant and the World Press Photo award. He has also received fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. BazanCuba was awarded Best Book of the Year at the New York Photo Festival in 2009.
Bazan’s work is included in many private and museum collections including: the Museum of Modern Art (New York), International Center of Photography (New York), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (Durham), Southeast Museum of Photography (Daytona), Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografia (Turin), Bibliotèque Nationale (Paris), and Musée Réattu (Arles).
In 2002, Ernesto Bazan created his own photographic workshops providing special emphasis in Latin America. Editing photographers’ work and guiding them through their creative process have been some of the highlights of his work as a maestro. Several hundred students have studied with him in the last 13 years. He lives in Veracruz, Mexico, with his wife Sissy, his twin boys, Pietro and Stefano, and their dog, Diva.
