Last year, internationally award-winning automotive photographer Piotr Degler traveled to Cuba in search of the most unusual and interesting cars on the island. Now the 200 or so best pictures are to be turned into a book that will be printed at the beginning of next year. A small preview of "Carros de Cuba" is already available in the form of a video.
Cuba's pre-revolutionary treasure
When the young Castro introduced a law in 1959 that prevented the import of cars, he did not see the great favor he was doing to all those who shared his great passion for automobiles. With the ban, he left behind a treasure from the time before the revolution. Today, the old cars are one of the biggest tourist attractions on the island.
Automotive photographer Piotr Degler dreamed of visiting this paradise for car enthusiasts for ten years. He himself says: "It was ten years of longing and expectations before I was finally able to set off on my journey. It was a desire I had felt inside me for a long time."
Degler spent a very intense month in Cuba, always on the lookout for his treasure. On his journey across the island from Viñales to Santiago de Cuba, he gathered a lot of information from the locals and chased after all kinds of rumors. With the help of new-found friends and many other local enthusiasts, he managed to open doors that are normally closed to tourists. This enabled him to track down some extremely rare and breathtaking icons of automotive history.
Motivation to travel through Cuba
Degler had three reasons why he wanted to go to Cuba right now. The first reason was the political situation in Cuba, which has been changing more and more rapidly recently. So now was the perfect time to visit Cuba. Furthermore, he had always wanted to show the daily life of classic cars on the island. "Cuba is like a kind of Jurassic Park for classic car enthusiasts," says the photographer. He also wanted to photograph exclusive cars that are now hidden away in private garages or are slowly but surely rusting away somewhere. He was specifically looking for the 300 SL from Mercedes-Benz (W198), which particularly appealed to him.
"Caross de Cuba"
In fact, he managed to achieve all of these goals and even found two Mercedes 300 SLs in Cuba, which are now being restored and represent a value of over one million USD. In total, over 25,000 photos were taken during the very intensive one-month trip, of the landscape, the people on the island and, above all, of many classic cars that have survived on the island for over half a century thanks to the ingenuity of the Cuban people.
The photographer's website provides a deeper insight into the book, which will show the 200 best images from Piotr Degler's journey through Cuba on around 300 pages. The book will be printed on high-quality paper and in color at the beginning of next year, provided that crowd funding is available. Anyone interested can support the project financially. More information can be found here.
