Me Entro El Garrion (I got the Sparrow)
Photographer and filmmaker Lorna Carmichael travelled to Cuba to document the impacts of the enduring US embargo. Upon her arrival, she discovered that local Cubans also yearn for a bygone era, prompting her to create the photo story 'I got a sparrow' to encapsulate these sentiments.
Photography Lorna Carmichael
This April I visited Cuba to make a photography project called ‘Longing’. The idea was to capture the essence of what Cuban economic refugees longed for in their home country. However, once in Cuba I realised that the Cubans, still living on the island, were also longing for a country that once was….
"The effects of this undeclared war – embargo – on the economy, society, daily life and dreams of progress of over 11 million Cubans have been without a single day’s respite. Over 80% of Cuba’s current population has never experienced life in Cuba without the blockade.”
Cuba 50 magazine, 2nd Nov 2023
This was the story I began to photograph and create:
ME ENTRO EL GARRION,
I GOT THE SPARROW
A meditation on longing
“Me entró el garrion es una expresion de añoranza para les Cubanos cuando el sentimiento de extrañar a sus costumbres, familia, hogar, amigos, se vuelve muy fuerte.”
“I got the sparrow is an an expression when you miss in a strong way your habits, family, friends – when Cubans can’t handle that feeling, they say that.”
Ernesto, Havana, 2023
Credits
Fixer: Havana 1 Productions
About Lorna
Do you believe in fairies? Do you believe in Selkies, Kelpies and the Gillieh Dhu? If, like Lorna Carmichael, you grew up in Scotland, a country steeped in folklore, you just might.
Lorna has been chasing magic her entire life.
As a child, her father would take her on excursions to nowhere and everywhere, magical mystery tours, destinations unknown. Later, when she graduated from Glasgow School of Art, Lorna set off on some bolder, more extravagant adventures. She found herself working on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia and helped create the cinematic magic of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader and J Edgar Hoover (a scary, mythical creature if ever there was one).
Her ability to connect and capture the magic of her subject matter has seen her photography work featured in film, international publications and exhibited by Lens Culture.
Vancouver-based, Lorna lives with her family, and has been occasionally required to shoo black bears out of the kitchen.
To see more of her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram
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