CW instructor Alex Garcia as an exchange student in Havana, 1997
...and now with students some decades later.
DECADES OF EXPERIENCE ON THE ISLAND
Photographer Alex Garcia started leading tours to Cuba as an expert for the New York Times Journeys travel program and as a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts/New York, where he has taught photography and video. He has studied, worked, and traveled throughout Cuba since 1995 as a tour leader, photography instructor, foreign correspondent, university student and as a family member with relatives living throughout the island. With two decades of work on staff at the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and now as an independent photographer, his work has received the highest commercial and editorial awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, a World Press Photo Golden Eye and a Titanium Lion in the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
As an educator, Garcia has taught at the Northwestern University Medill Graduate School of Journalism and has presented before audiences at Chicago Ideas Week, TEDx Midwest and Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago. His photo column at the Chicago Tribune was later edited into a book, "Depth of Field: Tips on Photojournalism and Creativity". It has been required reading in college courses across the country.
Fluent in Spanish, Alex is assisted bya team of tour guides based in Havana who are fluent in English and U.S. culture.
Our years of experience make for a curated experience that give participants access the island in ways that most visitors don't, and honestly can't, experience. As you probably have gathered, this will not be a "fish bowl" experience, looking out at a fascinating world from within a luxury experience. It's also not a situation where we are just tourists with cameras. This is an immersive people-to-people exchange where we will "press in" to daily life and support the Cuban people with our time and talents. You will live with a warm and welcoming Cuban family and have experiences and memories that will last a lifetime. Like many previous students have found, visiting Cuba will leave you wanting to know and experience more about this marvelous and unique island.
JOIN THE ADVENTURE!
““Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world"