Cuban Photographer Jaime Prendes Dies

HAVANA TIMES – On the afternoon of March 21, Cuban photographer Jaime Prendes, 54, known as “the eye of the Isle of Pines”, died. A native of the center of the country, he moved many years ago to the Isle of Youth and there he did most of his work.

His sudden death from an aneurysm shocked friends and relatives. A few days before, his wife, the poet Bellasoe Cobas, had died. Prendes had cared for in her illness until the last days. Both were key figures in the artistic life of the Isle of Youth.

At Havana Times we were lucky to have his images and his collaboration in our annual photography contests. He was a finalist in 2013 in the Gardens category, with Adam, a photo taken in the rural community of Mella, on the Isle of Youth. In 2014 he was a finalist with two works: in the Poster Category he addressed the controversial issue of Cuban graphic advertising with enemy Propaganda. And in the Housing category with Revolution and Culture, a rural home scene.

In 2016, in the Machismo category, he won the grand prize with a photo that denounced physical violence against women, also set in a rural environment.

In 2012, we published “The New Man: An Uncomfortable Exhibition” as part of the XI Young Filmmakers Showing. 

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.