Alberto Korda/Che Guevara

[jjovin]

Perhaps of interest to RFF members:

Neering the 40th aniversary of Che Guevara's death, BBC has published a short article on the legendary image taken by Alberto Korda.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7028598.stm

 

[splitimageview]

Ironic how a communist cold-blooded murderer has become a capitalist brand image.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

It's the cover photo of a Leica sales book from a few years back.

 

[jjovin]

Yes, I believe, Korda used a Leica M3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leica loaded with Kodak Plus-X film.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Plus-X

 

[javimm]

The picture, according to Korda, was taken with a Leica and a 90 mm lens.

Che Guevara image and myth has been most prominently exploited by the Castro regime. I've been to La Habana, and Che's images are everywhere, also most of his slogans are printed in walls.

The sad thing is that Fidel took great advantage of Guevara's death. Che's death cleared the path for Castro to absolute power. He was a very influent person, and Castro didn't want him to have such an influence. I read in some book that Castro sent him to Bolivia on purpose knowing that he could die there, so the problem of his influence was solved. Then he used Guevara's image to his own benefit.
IMHO, Guevara was the idealist, and Castro was (or better said, sadly still is) the cold power hungry dictator.

 

[40oz]

Ironic how a communist cold-blooded murderer has become a capitalist brand image.

"He was good-looking, he was young, but more than that, he died for his ideals, so he automatically becomes an icon."

I don't see it as ironic, but rather inevitable. One's position on the man is clearly colored by one's position on his politics, but one cannot argue but that he was "the real deal" - a man who did what he did for idealistic reasons, died for his actions, and left a legacy that lives on.

Indeed, one might suggest his image stands for more than just the man himself, but for a myriad of ideals that may or may not have been shared by Che. He has been appropriated by every two-bit revolutionary and borderline anarchist ever since. It's not just capitalists who appropriate, remember.

 

[xayraa33]

I always thought that Korda used an LTM Leica and a 90mm Elmar to shoot that Che photo.


I found out Korda used an M2 in this article, but wait!! , they are claiming that Che was a Leica fan, but the photos show him using his famous Nikon S2 with that 50/f1.1 .
where is Kiu or Fred?

http://www.c-weng.com/CamLeicaHass.htm

 

[tajart]

k and che

k and che

if you want to see a great image of korda, go to the editorial section of chris' page:

http://www.chriscameron.ca/

while you're there you'll find a few other greats (photos and people).

 

[migtex]

Yes!
The Great Che use a Nikon S2 and 1.1 50 Nikkor!
One can look at it (the S2) if one visits Havana.

 

[Pherdinand]

history and people making history gets twisted and distorted, sometimes turned inside out, by the ones in power and the ones supposed to interpret, teach or explain.

 

[splitimageview]

...and that would include the media.

 

[Pherdinand]

indeed. I've forgot about the media, foolishly.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Ironic how a communist cold-blooded murderer has become a capitalist brand image.

A "capitalist brand image"? How so?

How is Che Guevara a "communist cold-blooded murderer"? And how is this point of view any different from those that think of Nixon and Reagan as ... well, just change "communist" with "capitalist" in your statement. They both were a "capitalist brand image" in communist countries' propaganda.

 

[fgianni]

Nixon and Reagan as ... well, just change "communist" with "capitalist" in your statement. They both were a "capitalist brand image" in communist countries' propaganda.

Well Nixon wasn't a cold blooded murderer, but his main legacy (the american health system) has certainly costed, and is costing, the life of several americans.

 

[Dale D]

A perspective on Che that departs from the typical adoration found in most press outlets, including photography magazines:

http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200512070829.asp

This month's Black and White Photography magazine (UK) states that Che was a champion of the oppressed... I suppose you could buy into that, if you're willing to overlook the firing squads, and if you believe that dissent and free speech should be crushed. It seems to me that the signal accomplishment of Che and Fidel was overthrowing one brutal, oppressive regime and replacing it with another.

But gee, that beret was just so chic... no?

Dale

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

This month's Black and White Photography magazine (UK) states that Che was a champion of the oppressed... I suppose you could buy into that, if you're willing to overlook the firing squads

I suppose you could buy into your utterly demagogic statement if you didn't know anything about history, which most people on the northern part of this side of the pond happen to not know.

I am not defending "communism" nor El Che. I am, however, against uninformed bias that seeks to perpetuate its twisted views by Fox News-style tactics.

 

[Spider67]

A perspective on Che that departs from the typical adoration found in most press outlets, including photography magazines:

http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200512070829.asp

This month's Black and White Photography magazine (UK) states that Che was a champion of the oppressed... I suppose you could buy into that, if you're willing to overlook the firing squads, and if you believe that dissent and free speech should be crushed. It seems to me that the signal accomplishment of Che and Fidel was overthrowing one brutal, oppressive regime and replacing it with another.

But gee, that beret was just so chic... no?

Dale

Well Dale,
That's the big open festering wound created by our great thirst for knowledge:
revolutions will be applauded but at a acloser look they are all bloody, messy and unjust affairs. Even after the American Revolution there were loyalists who fled to Canada.
There is one thing I respect in him: he did not start immediately to reap the "well deserved benefits" of a "hero of the revolution".....like those guys we used to call the "Red Counts" because they behaved so very much like the aristocracy/upper class they just had sent away. I felt compelled to answer because of those people who were idealists themselves and sacrificed so much for a thing that they earnestly thought to be for the good for their people.
......It wasn't. For the Russsians it was a70 year experiment for other nations in Eastern Europe it was close to 50 years. Fifty years they had to watch how communists grew corrupt.....so a guy who continued to fight anbd died while doing so made quite a difference.

 

[Pherdinand]

there is little justice in the whole damn world, there is only well being of some on the expense of others. We all have the right to try to be in the first group...
I dare to say Ernesto "Che" Guevara together with Karl Marx were naive.
Naive as believing in something without considering that we are different and we have different needs and we are greedy (and in our greediness there are rare, very rare exceptions).
But that's fine too. The world neeeds naive heroes. Or naive bloody murderers, name them as we wish.

 

[landsknechte]

A "capitalist brand image"? How so?

When's the last time you've been on a university campus? Somehow I doubt that posters and t-shirts of Reagan and Nixon ever became as popular as counter-culture statements in communist countries.

 

[Dale D]

I suppose you could buy into your utterly demagogic statement if you didn't know anything about history, which most people on the northern part of this side of the pond happen to not know.

I am not defending "communism" nor El Che. I am, however, against uninformed bias that seeks to perpetuate its twisted views by Fox News-style tactics.

I find your response a bit puzzling... it asserts that I'm biased and uninformed, yet it doesn't counter my comments in any meaningful way. I.e., you claim that most of us inhabiting a rather large region (presumably the U.S. and Canada?) are ignorant of history, but you don't offer your own attempt at historical accuracy. Would you claim that Che had no involvement in dissenters being shot? Or perhaps you feel they were all given fair trials? Was free speech an element of Che's ideals?

Dale