chicago issue 653

Jun 2017

Marc Hauser

Chicago

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'During the 1980s I was a big cigar smoker. I got paid to go to Cuba to shoot images about cigars for a restaurant in 1983. , I went to a travel agency and they said the only way into Cuba was to fly into Mexico, get a Mexican passport and book a flight on a Soviet airline.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'During the 1980s I was a big cigar smoker. I got paid to go to Cuba to shoot images about cigars for a restaurant in 1983. , I went to a travel agency and they said the only way into Cuba was to fly into Mexico, get a Mexican passport and book a flight on a Soviet airline.'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'We needed a tour guide to get around, and secured one through Castro's administration. I'll never forget this guide telling us: 'If you can't speak Spanish, keep your mouth shut,' , highlighting the fact we were not supposed to be there and see what Cuba was really like.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'We needed a tour guide to get around, and secured one through Castro's administration. I'll never forget this guide telling us: 'If you can't speak Spanish, keep your mouth shut,' , highlighting the fact we were not supposed to be there and see what Cuba was really like.'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'I remember the poverty everywhere and no commerce. There were very few restaurants. A black market Chinese place, and another one that served only ham and ice cream or ham and pickles.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'I remember the poverty everywhere and no commerce. There were very few restaurants. A black market Chinese place, and another one that served only ham and ice cream or ham and pickles.'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'It was so amazing to meet with an interact with people who were making the very cigars I smoked each day, , and at the factory be surrounded by the 10,000 cigars being aged in storage lockers through out the factory waiting to be released to the public.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'It was so amazing to meet with an interact with people who were making the very cigars I smoked each day, , and at the factory be surrounded by the 10,000 cigars being aged in storage lockers through out the factory waiting to be released to the public.'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'At the cigar factory there was entertainment all day for the cigar-rollers which included people delivering Castro propaganda intermixed with singers and guitarists'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'At the cigar factory there was entertainment all day for the cigar-rollers which included people delivering Castro propaganda intermixed with singers and guitarists'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'We got around in the most ancient of cars and gas was $30 a gallon - we filled the tank for $600.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'We got around in the most ancient of cars and gas was $30 a gallon - we filled the tank for $600.'

  • Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'These images are shot in natural light with a Leica camera, and 40 of them were made into 4 feet by 6 feet silver prints which were hung through out the two-story restaurant. , When the restaurant closed, no one is sure what happened to the prints.'

    Photographer: Marc Hauser , 'These images are shot in natural light with a Leica camera, and 40 of them were made into 4 feet by 6 feet silver prints which were hung through out the two-story restaurant. , When the restaurant closed, no one is sure what happened to the prints.'

Welcome to Showcase Chicago, brought to you by Production Paradise. This issue features some of the leading architecture, interior & exterior, food & drink, people & lifestyle and portraiture photographers, as well as, rental studios, photographers' and illustrators' agents and photo & film production companies, currently working out of Chicago.

You can find more creative professionals and facilities for photographic and film production in our Chicago Photo and Film directories.

Companies including Fortune Magazine, Toyota, Prada, Purina, Money Magazine, Time Inc., Club Cadet, Comcast, and Taste of Home Magazine, among others, have trusted these professionals with their latest advertising campaigns and editorial shoots.

Be sure not to miss our recommended events:

  • #AiWeiwei - exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, featuring his photographs from the 80s and 90s together with some recent social media-based installations. Until 2nd July at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. 
  • Robert Frank: Photos - exhibition focused on R.Frank's photographs from two books: 'The Americans' and 'Partida'. Until 20th August at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Our editorial images were shot in natural light with a Leica camera by Marc Hauser, who was commissioned to go to Cuba back in the 80s, and went through many adventures to complete the assignment. He spent a week in Havana taking photos of street scenes and the Partagas Cigar Factory, the most famous cigar factory in Cuba. See the full story here.