Che Guevara

Jason and I have the amazing opportunity at the end of December to travel to Cuba for a photography trip with the Minneapolis Photo Center. We are so excited to be able to spend most of our time just photographing this amazing country that is very difficult to get into from the United States. It has been a long time since we have taken dedicated photographs of anything besides our 2 year old daughter.

As we are planning and getting ourselves ready for this trip, the number one visual I am seeing again and again is that of famous revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara. We have also traveled to see family in Argentina several times, and his image is often see there as well, since he is Argentinian. But, it is in Cuba that his face, most often this representation are seen and are seen as a national figure. I have read that the photographer of this image, Guerrillero Heroico by Alberto Korda, did not know how popular this image would become when he took it. Even though the photographer was a friend of Fidel Castro and was one of his official photographer, how would be know that image in particular would become so famous? I wonder what it is about this image in particular that so drew in people and captured the spirit of the man?

As I look through photographs of the country, I am really attracted to the various representations of this image that I see in various forms. I wanted to share some of those on this blog just to show how amazingly beautiful and worn some of them are. I am not making any comments about Che as a political figure or his past actions. This is simply a catalogue of some of the ones I have found that I was drawn to. These are not just from Cuba, but all over the world, mostly in Spanish speaking countries.