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Background information
The entire 'Buzz' project by Alessandro COSMELLI with three published photo volumes (Brooklyn, Milan and Havana) to date, is realized by shooting photos and videos from the special perspective of the public buses of the most iconic contemporary cities. The choice of the bus window 'as a second lens' is to be considered a statement of purpose or intent and a ubiquitous element of the global urban landscape. The bus and its route become markers of a metropolis’s social level of (in-)equity and of its (un-)sustainable patterns of growth. In many cities today the bus is actually an outcome of sprawl – a conveyance system for the poor to move from hovel to work and back. Fast-urbanizing areas of the world have also failed to supply the necessary infrastructure to support incessant expansion. What we see, as a result, moving from center to periphery, for example, is the very fabric of inequality. As series, we are able to address modern-day issues as they unfold, such as urbanization, social justice, and the environmental conditions of urban habitats in general. This is a 'symbolic photographic portrait' of the contemporary metropolis in this specific time in history, a celebration of urbanity itself. The central motif is “the portrait”: how we live, prosper and/or simply survive in globalized urban habitats that are increasingly and alarmingly becoming contested sites in all senses of the word. Our main focus is on the human landscape, the people who represent the soul of any city. The main inspiration for the project is Robert Frank’s 1958 series, 'From the Bus'. 'The Buzz Project' is an invitation to open the eyes of consciousness on the beauty of everyday life, no matter how stressful that everyday life may or may not be.
Content
Rather than present a picture of the image the world has come to know: the vintage cars, derelict buildings, and cigar-smoking old women, 'Havana Buzz' creates a portrait of a state of mind, having survived the corruption of the Batista government and the dictatorship of Castro. 'Havana Buzz' features a wide selection of pictures, taken in Havana in 2015. Shrouded in myth and contradiction, Havana is one of the most iconic and controversial metropolises in the world. The aim of the book is to create an unbiased visual account of contemporary Havana." (slightly adapted from a transcribed interview with Alessandro COSMELLI with Gaia Light in November 2017, © missrosen.com)