The Photograph

Havana is awash in beautiful and often, massive and decaying structures created decades ago by master architects and builders. Colors, weathered and worn, still explode with a preternatural vibrance under the slightest bit of sunlight. An embarrassing contrast to the drab and lifeless, beige existence that is so pervasive in the United States.

The skirts worn by the young girls in this photograph have been an occasional topic of discussion. They don't start out quite so short. When the uniform first arrives, the skirt stops just below the knees. But teenagers are gonna be teenagers, and that's that.