1998-2000 Cuban Fire

Beginning with the Pope's historic visit in 1998 through Carnivale in 2000 I made six extended, self-financed trips to Cuba to document daily life. With a film grant from Kodak - 2,000 rolls of Kodachrome - and a freelance photojournalist visa from The Village Voice, I photographed the Pope, the Castro brothers, teen prostitutes, dancers, mechanics, artists, athletes, fishermen, farmers, Ernest Hemingway's Captain and members of the Buena Vista Social Club.

I documented Saturday night keg parties, martyrs on their way to a leper colony, psychiatric hospitals and the first legal Christmas midnight mass in 40 years. I traveled the length and breadth of the country many times, capturing Cuban life along the way.

My 13 x 11-inch book of the resulting images contains 87 color photographs. Fifty photographs from this project were exhibited at the International Photography Gathering in Aleppo, Syria in 2006 and two photographs were acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

1996-1997 Green Bay Replay

In 1996 Dick Schaap asked me to provide the photographs for his book: Green Bay Replay. Schaap had collaborated with my father, Jerry Kramer, on "Instant Replay" and "Distant Replay", among others, so it was natural that a Kramer contributed to the third "Replay" book.

This was a momentous season as the Pack returned to and won its first Super Bowl in thirty years. I followed the team from the first days of training camp, through a 13-3 regular season and ultimately to New Orleans and the Lombardi Trophy presentation after the Packers won its third Super Bowl.

Dick's inscription on my copy of the book: "Your dad did it with words, and you did it with pictures - Thanks for bringing Green Bay - the town, the team and the fans - to life.
- All good things - Dick Schaap, 1997"

After the book was published 50 photographs were exhibited at the Leigh Yawkey-Woodley Museum in Wausau. The exhibit then toured venues throughout the state: Chippewa Valley Museum, Eau Claire; Concordia University, Mequon; Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc; Paine Art Center and Garden, Oshkosh; Rock County Historical Museum, Janesville; and concluded in 2006 at the Neville Museum in Green Bay.

1995-1996 Re-Marking Twain's Equator

In 1895, at 59 years of age, Mark Twain was the preeminent entertainer in the world. And he was broke.

So Twain, his wife Olivia and their daughter, Clara, embarked on an around-the-world lecture tour. When he finished, he wrote "Following the Equator". In retracing his steps, I read his book many times as well as every letter written by every member of the group. And I have pulled passages from the book and passages from letters and paired them with my photographs in an effort to show how the world has changed and, in some cases, how it has not changed. In all this project took me through 11 countries in 10 months and was financed with 9 credit cards and a film grant from Kodak.

Some highlights were photographing and being blessed by Mother Teresa, photographing Nelson Mandela in New Zealand, South Africa and England (with the Queen). I photographed an elephant-relocation project in South Africa's Kruger National Park and a Tamil Tiger terrorist bombing in Colombo, Sri Lanka. But basically the book is comprised of my color photographs of everyday life.

I've received back-cover review blurbs from lengendary photo editor John G. Morris, Pulitzer Prize winning author David Maraniss and documentary photographer Ken Light. This is a 13x11 book with 141 pages, 83 of my color photos and 7 black-and-white photos of Twain.