CUBAN REVOLUTION: "CHE" GUEVARA., KORDA, ALBERTO. 1928-2001.

Guerrillero Heroico [Ernesto "Che" Guevara]. Havana, Cuba: 1960 [printed 1992].

KORDA, ALBERTO. 1928-2001. Guerrillero Heroico [Ernesto "Che" Guevara]. Havana, Cuba: 1960 [printed 1992]. Gelatin silver print photograph, 20 x 16 inches (510 x 410mm), signed and dated ("Alberto Korda"), in the lower right margin, and numbered 29/50 in the lower left margin.
Provenance: With documentation from the photographer's estate.

This evocative image was taken by Castro's official photographer, Alberto Korda. Korda had been working in Havana as a jobbing photographer at weddings, baptisms and banquets until 1959, when the Cuban Revolution transformed his life. He became the friend and official photographer to Fidel Castro, following him around the world on official trips. This special image of Che was taken as Korda photographed the attendees of a memorial service on March 5th, 1960. The original roll of film shows multiple images of Castro speaking at the event, along with two images of Che listening earnestly. The first image shows Che with two other men below a palm tree, the second shows Che in close up, as here.

This extraordinary image has grown into a legend by itself, regularly included in the top photographs of the 20th Century. It has come to embody Che's dramatic life and his noble revolutionary rhetoric, put on t-shirts and marketing all around the World. The image is viewed by many as a symbol of the world revolutionary struggle.