It’s perhaps ironic that it was during our Street Photography trip to New York that we chose Havana, Cuba as our next destination. Ironic because we didn’t know then that the two week period we chose would see the first visit of a sitting U.S. President to the city in 90 years and with it an air of expectancy and change in a country unlike any other.

The people of Cuba are extraordinary. Many live with little but are proud of what they have, and in the often hostile world of the street photographer we were privileged to be welcomed so warmly and openly into their lives and even into their homes.

In a city filled with extraordinary architecture, streets lined with classic 40’s and 50’s cars and an air of faded opulence and a forgotten time, we quickly realized that Havana is not about any of these things, it is about its citizens. So we found a ‘casa particular’ in the heart of the city and explored Havana street by street, with a small Easter weekend excursion to UNESCO world heritage site Trinidad to experience a different side of Cuba.

For this trip we were testing out the brand new Fuji X-Pro2 and boy did it deliver (more on that in a future post)! With it we searched for and explored the heart and soul of Havana and fell completely in love with Cuba and its people along the way.

Here’s a selection of what we saw:

About the author: Dom and Liam are a sister and brother photography pair who, together with Dom’s husband Matt and their brother Alex make up York Place Studios. You can see more of their work on their website. This post also appeared here.