ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2022

BRIEFLY
NOTED
COMPILED BY MARISSA FIORUCCI
CAMPESINO CUBA
By Richard Sharum
Gost Books, 2021 | 208 pages | $60
to eighty-five who have spent their entire
lives living, raising families, and toiling
the land in the most remote regions
of their country. Campesino Cuba was
awarded an Honorable Mention for the
2021 ZEKE Award for Documentary
Photography.
THE WEATHER IS FINE
By Benedikt Partenheimer
Hatje Cantz, 2021 | 128 pages | $65
BETWEEN GIRLS
By Karen Marshall
Kehrer Verlag, 2021 | 268 pages | $50
We all know Cuba as that
land of classic but disintegrating
American cars, Fidel
Castro, cigars, colorful architecture,
and béisbol. Yet all of these stereotypes
are centered on the nation’s few urban
centers, even though 85 percent of
Cuba is rural. Dallas-based documentary
photographer Richard Sharum
takes us into this seldom-shown world
in Campesino Cuba. Over a four-year
period, Sharum traveled across rural
Cuba, exploring the lives of these
isolated farmers and their relationship
to the land. In 106 duotone images,
Sharum captures the lush tropical landscapes,
the rhythms of daily life, and
the people at work and play. The result
is a rich document of life in the countryside
at a time of transition when the
younger generation is leaving in search
of wider opportunities in the cities.
The book includes essays by Cuban
historian Aldo Daniel Naranjo and writer
Domingo Cuza Pedrera as well as the
powerful voices of six Campesino men
and women ranging in age from nineteen
Not only do we live in a period
of rapid, exciting change, but
we are also in the midst of the
Anthropocene age. The environment
and climate are transforming in the
wake of human-driven turbo-capitalism.
Benedikt Partenheimer’s work, The
Weather is Fine, makes it possible to
imagine—sensorily as well as contextually—the
close connection and increasing
imbalance between humans and
the earth. Photographs of fascinating,
impressive elegance reveal processes of
ecological and cultural transformation.
What makes these pictures so irresistible
is the human influence factor: the
painterly mist of air pollution floating
above urban panoramas, the ambivalence
of mountain reflections in melted
glacier water. The price of beauty is
inscribed into each image, rendering
Partenheimer’s work aesthetically intriguing—but
above all, existentially important
and politically controversial.
Benedikt Partenheimer studied photography
at the RMIT University, Melbourne,
and Parsons School of Design, New York.
His work has been shown around the
world and showered with awards. He
lives in Berlin.
In 1985, Karen Marshall began
photographing a group of teenagers
in New York City. Her intent was
to look at the emotional bonding that
happens between teenage girls and
to document the emblematic relationships
that often develop at this time in
their lives. Ten months later, Molly, one
of the girls in the group, was hit by a
car and killed. Marshall resolved to
keep the project going and continued
to photograph the girls in various ways
over the years. Although Molly would
forever remain 17, the other girls would
become women. Between Girls evolved
into a thirty-year meditation on women’s
friendships.
Karen Marshall is the recipient of
grants and support from private foundations.
Her photographs have been
exhibited internationally and are part
of several collections. She is the Chair
of the Documentary Practice and Visual
Journalism program at The International
Center of Photography in New York City.
60 / ZEKE SPRING 2022