Raúl Cañibano was born in Havana in 1961 and spent his childhood traversing both the city and countryside, becoming intimately acquainted with the province of Cienfuegos. He graduated as a welding technician and worked as a welder for the Cuban Civil Aviation until 1988. It was at this point that he developed an interest in photography, which he pursued as an autodidact. At that time, the country lacked schools or workshops dedicated to the study of photography, prompting him to educate himself by frequenting the National Library of Cuba to learn about art history, composition, and photographic techniques. Alongside his welding job, he worked in a photographic studio named 'Caracas' as a lab technician, balancing theoretical learning with daily practice in the studio and creating his first artistic photographs.
In 1990, while visiting his childhood home of Cienfuegos, Cañibano met photographer Alfredo Sarabia. Inspired by Sarabia, he began experimenting with photography and found work at national magazines. Influenced by photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson and Sebastião Salgado, as well as the paintings of Salvador Dalí, he developed his own surrealistic style. During the "Special Period" in Cuba, the scarcity of photographic materials posed significant challenges, and many of the films he used were expired, resulting in the loss of numerous early photographs. In 1998, Cañibano received the Salon of Photography’s National Prize for his series “Tierra Guajira,” which pays tribute to the Cuban peasant and recalls his childhood experiences in rural Cuba. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Fototeca de Cuba, Casa de las Americas in Madrid, the Royal National Theater in London, the Arles Festival in France, the Nordic Light International Festival of Photography in Norway, and the Frankston Arts Centre in Australia, as well as New York’s Robert Mann and Throckmorton Fine Art galleries.
Cañibano is considered one of the most important Cuban photographers of the past 50 years. His work, focusing particularly on the daily lives of people in Cuba, has been widely recognized and awarded. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and his photographs are part of significant collections, including the International Center of Photography in New York, Throckmorton Gallery, Fototeca de Cuba, the Juan Mulder Collection, and the Michel Horbach Foundation in Germany. His work has been featured in the publication "CUBA: 100 years of Cuban Photography" and numerous international magazines. He continues to give workshops both in Cuba and abroad, including in Spain, Mexico, France, and Belgium.
