Eduardo del Valle

Childhood Memories from the Other Side of the Water
By Eduardo del Valle
Presented by : Museum of Art and Design (freedom tower)

Eduardo del Valle is a Cuban photographer that fled the island at the age of 10. He faced very difficult and tormenting events that shaped his life. One being the traumatic experience of being sexually abused by his father.  For 50 years, he kept these events hidden. About a decade ago, he decided it was enough and spoke out. "I had to chew it up,  And spit it out."   -del Valle.

This exhibition entails a series of 83 photographs that portray his childhood memories of Cuba. For 9 years he photographed around the world places that would remind him of Cuba in the 50's.

His memories range from the street corner barber who 50 years later remains, to the circus he one visited as a child. He shares with us objects from his childhood such as old photographs that he juxtaposes with scenes from today creating new memories. He remembers his first girlfriend, 'Anita' and stumbles upon a street person similar to that of his time in Cuba. Eduardo mentions that he looks up to Walker Evans and his influence in visible in the photograph of the black male smoking a cigar. During the course of this project, he carried with him a box of toys. Upon encountering a place that would trigger a memory, he would reach into his box pull out a toy that would fit the composition and capture the moment.