Michael Dweck, scenester extraordinaire

Michael Dweck is a perspicacious, driven hippy, if such qualities can be combined, but first and foremost he is a brilliant photographer who always tells a story with his pictures. He wants us to see beauty and sexiness, to be drawn into a world away from the humdrum lives that most of us lead. He did so with the East End’s surfers in The End: Montauk, NY, then Mermaids, and now he has done it again with Cuba in his book Habana Libre.

“The most obvious similarities are simple and aesthetic—you’re talking about beautiful people in striking island settings,” says Dweck of the two landscapes. “But when you spend time in these places with these people, you find some more interesting connections. If you’re lucky enough to live in Montauk, you’re worried about urban development—you and your friends are, say, surfers, and you’re worried about having to battle for waves. Now, if you’re lucky enough to be a part of this clique in Havana, you have the same worries about identity and integrity: What happens if the government stops supporting the arts? What if you stop being privileged and relevant?”

Instead of resorting to the clichés of people rolling and smoking cigars, Dweck’s Habana Libre portrays the keenly observant artists, writers, musicians, and models who make up Cuba’s privileged creative class. (Included in the fringes of this class are photographers Alex Castro Soto del Valle and Camilo Guevara, the children of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, respectively.) Dweck, alerted to nightly parties, performances, concerts, and the like by coded text messages titled PMM (Por un Mundo Mejor—“for a better world”) almost instantly became a part of this elite circle. “When you have a camera around your neck, you invariably start meeting people,” says Dweck. “I touched down in Havana not knowing a soul. Two nights later, I was dancing with 200 people between a turquoise pool and a sea wall, dancing in the summer steam with some of the world’s most talented artists and women who seemed to have a third gear in their hips. I went from zero to 60, reveling in the Cuba that most Americans don’t get to see, and partying in the Cuba that most Cubans don’t get to see.”

The limited edition Habana Libre box set ($800), of which there are only 100 and which includes a signed book and signed print, is available in the Hamptons at Bloom, 43 Madison St., Sag Harbor, 725-5940


Michael Dweck’s The End: Montauk, N.Y. 2004 and Habana Libre, 2011 will appear at the Staley Wise Gallery between December 9 and January 28, 2012. 560 Broadway, 3rd Fl., NYC, 212-966-6223