CUBAN REVOLUTION: KORDA PHOTOGRAPH OF CHE GUEVARA.

CUBAN REVOLUTION: KORDA PHOTOGRAPH OF CHE GUEVARA.
KORDA, ALBERTO. 1928-2001. "Guerrillero Heroico"[Ernesto "Che" Guevara.] Havana, Cuba: shot at La Coubre Memorial Service, March 5th, 1960. Vintage Gelatin Silver Print of Che Guevara, 250 x 200 mm. Two small pieces of paper stuck on the verso, some light brown spotting on verso, recto with slight traces of adhesive tape to the four corners, a few small tears to edges.
Provenance: [Che Guevara]; gifted on his death to Hernando Lopez Martinez, his aide 1959-65 (with copies of his appointment as Che's assistant, signed by Che, details of Che's bequest of his jeep to Lopez, and photographs both of Lopez and Che, and of Lopez attending Che's wedding to Aleida March, a fellow revolutionary, on June 2nd 1959); sold to the present owner (with statements from the buyer and Lopez).

LIKELY CHE"S OWN COPY OF THIS DEFINITIVE PORTRAIT OF A REVOLUTIONARY. Bequeathed to his Military aide after his execution in Bolivia, Hernando Lopez kept this image of the great Revolutionary until his later years.
This evocative image was taken by Korda, A Cuban photographer 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 close by below a palm tree, the second show Che in close up, as here with a few fonds of the tree on the right hand side. This image is a version of that second negative with around 10mm cut off the edges all around, and it was this image that Korda issued in Revolucion and also sent off to Feltrinelli in Italy.

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 rhetoric, and is viewed by many as a symbol of Revolutionary Struggle around the World.