For as long as I've photographed seriously, I've tried hard, sometimes very hard, to keep people out of my photographs.  People just haven't been a useful part of how I saw the photographs I make.  I'm not always a patient person, and people- or their bright clothes, or their vehicles  are amongst the greatest frustrations I've felt in photography.

Then I landed in Cuba in 2009 for my third substantive visit in eight years.  I'd been really looking forward to it, but within an hour of leaving my Havana hotel I knew that this was a trip too far.  The photographs of colourful crumbling buildings and cars  were projects that were done and weren't going to satisfy me that time.  So- how to fill 8 days in Havana and Trinidad?  Its a stretch to think of Cuban food as being gastronomic or absorbing.  I won't sit on a beach for long,  and I can't  spend days touring bars since I'm diabetic and the great cocktails and decent beer are strictly in moderation.

 So I photographed Cubans.