Violet Isle

This multi-layered portrait of “the violet isle”––a little-known name for Cuba inspired by the rich color of the soil there––presents a unique, often enigmatic document of a vibrant and vulnerable land. It combines two separate photographic visions: Alex Webb’s exploration of street life in Cuba, and Rebecca Norris Webb’s fascination with the unique, quixotic collections of animals she discovered there, from tiny zoos and pigeon societies to hand-painted natural history displays and quirky personal menageries. The result is a blend of two different aesthetics inspired by Cuba’s existence for decades in an economic, political, cultural and ecological bubble virtually untouched by the rest of the world, and unlikely to remain that way for much longer.