Between 1984 and 1994, David Barbour was a contract photographer for the Canadian International Development  Agency (CIDA) and he photographed in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. All the photographs were produced in colour on Kodachrome film and were used for educational and promotional usage. In 1994, he wanted to pursue a personal project that extended his experience in other countries and he travelled to Havana for the first time. Since then, he has returned 16 times to document life on the street, complete assignments and lead photo workshops for SPAO in Ottawa.

The image of the old man with the wrinkled face and cigar has come to represent our vision of Cuba long ago, but what of Cuba now?  There are teenage boys there with the same energy and need to band together as the teenage boys in America, or anywhere else.   They have taken to skateboarding with the same passion of the original skateboarding crews from Venice Beach, California in the 1970s, but their skatepark is the crumbling ruins of the Spanish colonization and Castro’s Revolución. The setting is totally unique, but their desire to skate and the bond between them is universal.