2018 Cuba Workshops with Peter Turnley

Every year we have really good luck connecting TOP readers with Peter's Cuba workshops, and I hope this year is no exception. To answer the first question you'll no doubt have, the recent hurricane has not seriously affected travel to the island or the safety of visitors, and Cuba, like all of the Caribbean islands, needs you—one of the most important ways for people to help Cuba is to continue to travel there.

Here are the four upcoming Peter Turnley workshops in Cuba:

New Year’s in Havana and Vinales, December 30 2017–January 5 2018

Havana and Vinales, February 10–16, 2018

Trinidad, Cienfuegos, and Havana, March 10–16, 2018

Santiago and the Orient, April 4–10, 2018

TOP readers in general got a nice compliment from Peter—he recently shared with me that he's especially eager to have me announce his workshops here because he gets such high-quality attendees from TOP. Nice.

And here's what one TOP reader, Maggie Osterberg, said about her experience: "I wish the rest of my life was like the week I spent in Cuba. Days filled with purposeful, rewarding work, immersed among some of the most open and generous people I've yet to meet and nights filled with good food, good drinks and good company. Peter Turnley is not only a masterful teacher and mentor, he's also just a great guy. They say to never meet your heroes, but Peter is an exception to that rule. He and this trip have changed the way I look at my work, the world and my life. I hope that your trip is equally as rich and rewarding. If you open yourself to the Cuban people, you'll be rewarded not just in kind, but by a hundredfold more."

To register for any of the four workshops, email Laura Adams of Cuba Cultural Travel  ([email protected]), and make sure the subject line of your email contains the dates of the workshop you're interested in attending. Cuba Cultural Travel handles registration, tuition, airfare between the US and Cuba, visas, lodging, transportation, and several meals.

The workshops and travel to Cuba for all participants is approved under the new US regulations for travel to Cuba as of June 16, 2017. All participants are covered by the new regulations authorizing group people-to-people educational travel. From what I understand it's currently difficult (not possible? I'll have to ask Peter) for private individuals to travel to Cuba any other way. Cuba Cultural Travel is a licensed US tour operator with more than 20 years of experience leading tours to Cuba.

For those of you who don't know our friend Peter Turnley (you must not read TOP very often, or maybe you're new to us), he's one of those rare photographers whose work and activities include both fine art and one of the photography-related professions—in his case news photojournalism. With his identical brother David he was profiled on "60 Minutes" on CBS, and he has more than 40 NEWSWEEK covers to his credit, along with numerous other accomplishments. Among many other things, he photographed the freeing of Nelson Mandela, 9/11, and the Tiananmen Square uprisings in China. To list the rest would require a post longer than this one.

Although he lives in Paris and New York City, he's also been deeply involved with Cuba for many years. One of his many published books is Cuba: A Grace of Spirit, and last year he was the first American photographer since the Cuban Revolution to be offered a major exhibition at Cuba's leading art museum, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes of Habana (National Museum of Fine Arts Havana). The show was called "Momentos de la Condicion Humana"—"Moments of the Human Condition." Peter says, "My workshops offer participants exposure to the heart and soul of authentic Cuban life." Attendees are offered daily access to local themes such as dance, religion, music, tobacco farming and the economy, medicine, education, boxing, and ballet.

Even more importantly for you, though, Peter is an energetic and gifted workshop teacher who will give you a lot of personal attention. His are among the few Cuban workshops that offer daily reviews and critiques. Each day there is also plenty of free time to wonder the streets on your own, or with him, or with one or more of the three excellent Cuban photographer guides who serve as "translators, fixers, friends, and inspiration." Daily transportation for all participants in the workshops is also provided.

These workshops always fill up, so if you're interested in attending, don't wait too long! Contact Laura Adams soon.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

alan wieder: "Mike I spent a week with Peter in Cuba and it was magical. Walked with him one night and actually took photographs of one of the woman that appears in his Cuba book—didn't realize it at the time. Then chatted with two woman in a nail and hair salon for an hour with him as we took photographs. He is a gentle teacher and changed my work as a photographer. Absolutely great workshop."

Comments

[Herman Krieger]

Cuban street photographer-

[Peter Wright]

I took a workshop with Peter in New York a year or two back, and I have to say it was very enjoyable and informative. I would love to do another one. I considered the Cuba workshop as I know it would be fun, however I decided not to go, due to the price. The NY workshop is currently $1650, while the Cuba workshops are about $3K to $5K. I think this is because this is a ‘for Americans’ arrangement, where visas, and other forms need to be filled out by mandate of the US gov for it’s citizens. (I enquired about the cost for a non-American, but it made little difference – I got the impression that the organization that handles the travel wants to get paid for getting the (unnecessary for me) documents.)

For those of us in the rest of the world, we can get direct flights from any major city to various parts of Cuba (been there twice), and choose our own hotels. Much simpler and less costly.

I would really like to see Peter run these workshops on a ‘tuition only’ basis as he does for NY and Paris. I think many of us would be taking up the opportunity. Don’t mean to sound negative, and I’m sure anyone heading off to Cuba will enjoy the experience.

[Maggie Osterberg]

Cuba: DAMN FINE TIME.

Some of my pix from there:

[Peter Turnley]

I would like to respond briefly to Peter Wright’s comment.
Under current circumstances, the Cuba workshops can not be compared to a New York workshop. My Cuba Workshops include airfare to and from Cuba from the US, hotel and lodging, daily transportation, meals, a daily itinerary of very exciting visual opportunities to interact with the daily life of Cubans touching on religion, the arts, dance, ballet, sports, and economic life, day trips, conference room and daily photo review sessions, visas, and three local Cuban photographer guides/translator/fixers . My workshops fall within the current US regulations for US travelers allowing group travel to Cuba for individuals who want to travel to Cuba and fall under the regulations for people-to-people group travel sponsored by an accredited tour operator. These workshops are also importantly approved by the Cuban authorities. They have been a wonderful experience for now more than 300 participants over these past 6 years and will continue to be great experiences for passionate photographers wishing to visit and photograph Cuba. They are also on par or even less expensive overall than other overseas photography workshops including my very popular Paris Workshops. I have done my very best under all circumstances to create a photography workshop in Cuba allowing participants to have profound access to Cuban daily life at this exciting and historic moment in Cuban life. I am very proud of the people-to-people aspect of these Cuba Workshops and hope anyone interested in attending will visit the testimonials and student galleries of my website:www.peterturnley.com , to see reactions and photographs from past participants.