Alberto Korda

ALBERTO KORDA (Havana, 1928- 2001).
"Che Guevara-The Heroic Guerrilla", c.1960.
Handmade copy by the author of the original negative.
Signed and dedicated in the upper left part.
Measurements: 30 x 21 cm.

Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda (Havana, Cuba, September 14, 1928 - Paris, May 25, 2001), was a Cuban photographer known worldwide as the author of the mythical photograph of Che Guevara "The Heroic Guerrilla". Korda had his first contact with photography when he took his father's camera and began to photograph his girlfriend. He began to work professionally at banquets, weddings and baptisms. In 1953 he opened his first studio with photographer Luis Pierce. Korda and Pierce did a variety of work ranging from fashion to advertising. During this period Korda was able to develop his unique style of capturing the image from another angle, in a way that was very different from other traditional photography studios. It was this style that defined and popularized Korda's photography, who eventually opened his own business under the name 'Korda Studios'. In the early years he was more interested in fashion, eventually becoming Cuba's leading fashion photographer. Korda disliked artificial lighting, saying it was "a parody of reality" and only used natural light in his studio. He emerged as the master of black and white photography and through his work sought the perfect composition and framing. Korda had a unique creative ambition that contrasted with the unimaginative cultural perspective of traditional Cuban photography. This creativity turned his business into an art studio. His photographic work has been exhibited in major galleries on the European continent and in the Americas, as well as in other parts of the world. But in 1959 his career took a 180-degree turn. With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Korda went to work for the Revolution and accompanied Fidel Castro as official photographer in different tours that the Cuban leader carried out. 1960 was the year that changed Korda's life forever, since in that year he took the famous photograph The Heroic Guerrilla, which is considered by great critics as one of the ten best photographic portraits of all times and has become the most reproduced photograph in history, at the same time that it has changed forever the aesthetics of the revolutionary man. Korda himself made very few copies during his lifetime from his own original negative. The vast majority of images that have been reproduced throughout history are photocopies of the historic photograph.