Haiti

Bruce Gilden first journeyed to Haiti in 1984 to document the famous Mardi Gras festivities in Port
au Prince. Fascinated by the country, he returned many times and his landmark monograph Haiti,
a culmination of these photographs made during this period was first published in 1996. Gilden has
continued to return to Haiti, and this new expanded edition of his book includes 40 new images
made up until 2010, completing Gilden's vision of the country.
Though only an hour's flight from Miami and the US mainland, Haiti remains the least-developed
country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti was freed from French colonial control and slavery in
the early 19th Century but this independent came at a cost of an 'independence debt' which was
not paid off until 1947. In addition, chronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent
decades have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas.