Baling Sugarcane, Cuba
Dmitri Baltermants, Russian (born Warsaw, Poland), 1912 - 1990
negative probably 1970; print 2003
Gelatin silver print
Sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through a gift from Harley and Stephen C. Osman, Class of 1956, Tuck 1957
PH.2003.56.221
Geography
Place Made: Russia, Europe
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
On view
Label
The consumption of sugar at the scale normalized today
was only possible through exploited labor on stolen lands.
Sugarcane thrives in warm, humid conditions, and colonial
empires were intentional in their occupation of countries
such as Cuba and the West Indies where sugarcane
could flourish.
The shadowed mountains of hand-cut sugarcane in
Dmitri Baltermants’s photograph indicate the sheer scope
of sugar processing in Cuba. This photo was taken in the
1970s, during the Cuban sugar industry’s early period of
decline due to U.S. embargos. In contrast, Pablo Delano’s
2012 photographs show the abandoned sugar factories in
the West Indies—these once-bustling facilities are now
in a state of decay, their massive machinery left to rust.
Course History
GOVT 7, Politics and Culture in Cuba, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2012
GOVT 7, Politics of Cuba, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2013
GOVT 7, Politics and Culture of Cuba, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2014
Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Charis Boke, Summer 2024
First Year Student Enrichment Program, Rachel Obbard, Summer 2024
Exhibition History
From the Field: Tracing Foodways Through Art, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 8-November 3, 2024.
Provenance
Produced by the Dmitri Baltermants Collection, LLC, Scarsdale, New York; sold to present collection (arranged through Harley and Stephen C. Osman, Class of 1956, Tuck 1957), 2003.
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