Che Guevara’s portrait adorned millions of posters, T -shirts and souvenirs millions of folds – the portrait has long been part of global iconography. The famous picture “Guerrillero Heroico” (heroic guerrilla) was created 65 years ago as a pure lucky stroke. Today the recording is one of the most reproduced worldwide.
The Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took the picture on March 5, 1960 at a funeral service in Havana. The day before, dozens of people died when the French freighter “La Coubre” explodes in the port of the Cuban capital in the port of ammunition and grenades. Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro accuses the USA sabotage.
Castro and guests such as the French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir come to the mourning event. Korda is on the road for the Cuban newspaper “Revolución”. Ernesto “Che” Guevara initially stays in the background on stage. Then he suddenly performs and looks briefly over the mourning crowd. At that moment, the photographer presses the trigger of his camera.
The rebel’s view impressed Korda
“It was a ‘pac, pac’: two recordings and that was,” says Korda (1928-2001) in an interview the sound of his Leica. Once across, once. “I was surprised. His intense look almost frightened me ”. Then Guevara disappears out of sight again.
After the recording, Korda, with a bourgeois name Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, opt for the horizontal recording. The former advertising and fashion photographer cuts a palm branch and a head on the left and right side of the recording.
The photo shows the face of the left resistance fighter slightly recorded from below. His gaze goes into the distance. On his head he wears a black beret with a fifties. The wavy hair almost extends to the shoulder.
On the bikini and as a tattoo
To date, the picture is used in a wide variety of contexts. It was projected onto the stage at the youngest world tour of Pop icon Madonna. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen presented it on a bikini. Box idol Mike Tyson and ex-football star Diego Armando Maradona had Guevara’s portrait tattooed.
The Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick made a famous graphic inspired by the photo in 1968. An assistant to Andy Warhol created a pop art version of the picture.
The iconic portrait contributed significantly to the myth of Che Guevara as an idealistic guerrilla. His critics: on the other hand, see him as a merciless murderer. The Argentinian fought on the side of the Castro brothers in the Cuban Revolution and occupied various government offices after the victory of the rebels.
The importance of the photo further developed
“The picture has become an idea. It is no longer about a person, but about a symbol, ”says Mariana Huerta from the picture center of the Mexican Ministry of Culture. A deduction signed by Korda is kept there. Resistance, transformation, ideals: According to Huerta, the message of the photo has grown far beyond the specific context in which it was created.
The photo did not immediately become world famous. After the funeral service, Korda’s newspaper does not use it at first, since Guevara was not the main character of the day. The photo was published in a small format in 1961 to announce a TVAr address from Guevara as Cuba’s Minister of Industry.
For years, the picture hangs on the wall of Kordas photo studio. The Italian publisher and communist activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli visited him there in 1967. He needs a photo of “che”, and Korda gives him two prints – free of charge.
After the death of Guevara, the portrait becomes icon
The trail of the picture then leads to Europe. In August 1967 it appears in the magazine “Paris Match” “without naming the name of the photographer. “Che Guevara: Où Est-il Donc?” (Che Guevara: So where is he?) Titles the magazine. The Guerillero has been submerged to start a revolution in Bolivia.
Two months later, Guevara was shot by Bolivian soldiers at the age of 39. This begins the triumphal march of the photo. Feltrinelli has hundreds of thousands of poster printed with the picture. The portrait is omnipresent among the students: Interior protests from 1968. The guerrilla becomes the cult figure of the left and the object of capitalism.
“A che died, but other ches were born,” says Korda’s daughter, Diana Díaz, in the documentary “Chevolution” (2008) by Luis López and Trisha Section. Korda was a convinced supporter of the Cuban Revolution. Reproductive rights were not important to him.
Compensation for vodka advertising
It was not until the end of the 1990s that Korda and his family began to successfully sue large companies such as the vodka manufacturer Smirnoff and the watchmaker Swatch because of the commercial use of the image. In 2001 Korda died of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 72. He had traveled to the French capital for an exhibition.
“The photo didn’t make him rich,” says his daughter in the film. Above all, it has changed his life emotionally. He was proud of the picture. “To me he said: Imagine how famous I became through this photo. And I didn’t do anything for it ”.