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Humberto Mayol is an award-winning Cuban photographer and documentary filmmaker working with the Palomas Group of the National Film Institute of Cuba.

Luis Medina was born on June 18, 1942, in Havana, Cuba. During his childhood, he attended a private military school until he left Cuba for Spain at the age of sixteen in 1958. There, he was introduced to the arts, such as painting and literature, by Cuban poet Gastón Baquero. Medina traveled and worked throughout Europe, visiting Germany and Italy. He migrated to Miami, Florida, in 1961, and was reunited with his mother and stepfather, who had fled Cuba after Fidel Castro’s government came to power. He attended Miami Dade Junior College and took courses in history, philosophy, and sociology. Upon graduating with honors in 1967, Medina enrolled in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with dreams of becoming a sculptor. He was accompanied at SAIC by his childhood friend José López, and the two were quickly taken in by American mentors Harold Allen and Hugh Edwards.

Medina soon turned his artistic interests to the medium of photography, which he practiced alongside López until his friend’s departure to Miami in 1976. The two taught photography together in the early 1970s at Columbia College - Chicago and other local universities. Medina remained in Chicago, where he developed a growing body of photographic work that focused on architectural photography and documenting marginalized groups, such as the Latinx and gay communities in the Chicago area. In one acclaimed series, Medina captured the inner workings of the gang population, photographing their graffiti while simultaneously earning their respect. In 1980, this work was exhibited in a solo show at the Art Institute.

Medina was diagnosed with a cytomegalovirus infection in 1984; this illness can often be associated with AIDS. A year later, he died at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami at the age of forty-three.

Tony Mendoza was born on July 21, 1941 in Havana, Cuba. After migrating to the United States in 1960 and adjusting to his new life in Miami, Florida, he received a Bachelor of Engineering from Yale University and later attended Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1973, he began to mainly focus on photography. In 1988, he became a professor of photography at Ohio State University. He has received over ten fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts.