Talking is complicated, photographing is not

I like music since I was a child. I remember my grandmother listening Damsel Charming, I think that is the most distant memory that I have. Then they bought my brother a double-cassette recorder and there began a kind of traffic: they got cassettes, they recorded. My dad liked Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and all the rock he listened to in his youth, although later he liked hip hop. I was very young and he gave me my first cassette. It was from Eros Ramazzotti.

Then, when I was 10 years old, I went one afternoon with my father to buy a CD player that a friend sold him and that came with a special edition of the album love songs (The Rocket Record Company, 1995)‎ by Elton John, and another album with the single Live Like Horses, with Luciano Pavarotti. I still remember the feeling the moment the song started Sacrifice: It's a human sign when things go wrong….

Sometimes I listen to that song and I bristle, it transports me to that moment 20 years ago. Today I listen to music all the time when I'm at home. The genres vary, they depend on the mood, they take me everywhere. I'm going to another place with María Teresa Vera: I don't know, baby, what happened to me when I first saw you...

Ana María Ochoa, 2020. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Despite this closeness to music, I have never set out to make a photographic series on musicians. These portraits have happened spontaneously. Singing is difficult for Ana María Ochoa, or at least for me it is difficult for her to sing; Anna, sing!, then there, sitting in the living room of my house, Ana María sings I've got, by Marta Valdés, with that incredible voice. I like it when it says: fat thing.

Martín Moya, 2018. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Ana told me one day that Martín and I were ancient gentlemen, the only ones she knew. Martín is a special boy, he has a dragon tattooed on his back and if you close your eyes you might think you are talking to an old man. I met him at Ana's house, where I also met Antonio and Sandro.

Sandro / BeutNoise, 2018. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Antonio Milanés, 2018. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

That day they talked about perfect pitch and someone said that he would end up playing in the Charanga Habanera; while Sandro commented that to have sex you had to listen to music that had a lot of bass. There I also saw La Chirri for the first time and, well, La Chirri is La Chirri.

La Chirri and Camilo, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

I met Kike when I was 16 years old. He was my cousin's boyfriend, he was studying music and he walked around with a head full of dreadlocks and a trunk. Kike is like family. One day at the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center he took me to the dressing room and introduced me to the boys from Toques del Río. I photographed them before and after playing. The dressing room is one of those places that I prefer to take photos.

Kike from Toques del Río, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

The Blood of Toques del Río, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Ismel de Toques del Río, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Manuel de Toques del Río, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

In a rehearsal at Danay's house I met Víctor, whom Danay's grandmother told him was very ugly. He seemed half crazy to me but I only had to listen to him play the piano to think that he is neither ugly nor crazy. Pupo, El Pencil and Cepero were also there. I owe Cepe some photos from almost a year ago when they did a rap Open Mic in Old Havana. Xiomis is Cepe's sister, she is a doctor and rapper, and lives in Cienfuegos.

Víctor Campbell, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Jesús Pupo, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

The Pencil, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

The Cepe, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Xiomi, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

I photographed Raúl and Diana in a room where they were preparing to play at a party. I didn't know them, I snuck in. These portraits are the result of the way I like to communicate. I have met all these musicians with the camera in hand. Speaking is difficult for me, but photographing is not.

Raúl Zapata, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Diana Osumy Sainz, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Frank Jiménez, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Tony Olaz, 2020. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.

Maria, 2019. Photo: Evelyn Sosa Rojas.