Guerrillero Heroico

''Guerrillero Heroico'' (, ) is a photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on 5 March 1960, in Havana, at a memorial service for victims of the ''La Coubre'' explosion. By the end of the 1960s, the image, in conjunction with Guevara's subsequent actions and eventual execution, helped solidify the leader as a cultural icon.Communists, Capitalists still buy into Iconic Che Photo, Author says
by Brian Byrnes, '' CNN'', 5 May 2009 Korda has said that at the moment he shot the picture, he was drawn to Guevara's facial expression, which showed "absolute implacability" as well as anger and pain.''Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon'', by Trisha Ziff, Abrams Image, 2006, pg 15 Years later, Korda would say that the photograph showed Che's firm and stoical character. Guevara was 31 years old at the time the photograph was taken.

Emphasizing the image's ubiquitous nature and wide appeal, the Maryland Institute College of Art called the picture a symbol of the 20th century and the world's most famous photograph. Versions of it have been painted, printed, digitized, embroidered, tattooed, silk-screened, sculpted or sketched on nearly every surface imaginable, leading the Victoria and Albert Museum to say that the photograph has been reproduced more than any other image in photography. Jonathan Green, director of the UCR/California Museum of Photography, has speculated that

Korda's image has worked its way into languages around the world. It has become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol. It mysteriously reappears whenever there's a conflict. There isn’t anything else in history that serves in this way.

The history and contemporary global impact of the image is the basis for the 2008 documentary '' Chevolution'', directed by Trisha Ziff, along with the 2009 book ''Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image'' by Michael Casey.

Origins

On 4 March 1960, the French freighter ''La Coubre'' exploded in Havana Harbor, killing up to 100 people and injuring several hundred more.''Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life'', by Jon Lee Anderson, 1997, pg 442 Upon hearing the blast, Guevara rushed to the harbor to board the burning ship, angrily forcing his way past those concerned for his safety following a secondary explosion.

The following day on 5 March, President Fidel Castro blamed the U.S. CIA and called for a memorial service and mass demonstration at Havana's Colón Cemetery, to honor the victims. At the time, Guevara was Minister of Industry in the new government, and Korda was Castro's official photographer. After a funeral march along the seafront boulevard known as Malecón, Fidel Castro gave a eulogy for the fallen at a stage on the corner of 23rd and 12th streets.Obit: Alberto Korda
The Times, May 28, 2001 Castro gave a fiery speech, using the words ''"Patria o Muerte"'' ("Homeland or Death") for the first time.

Meanwhile, at 11:20 am, Guevara came into view for a few seconds, wearing a jacket and a black beret with an inverted five-pointed brass star. Korda snapped just two frames of him from a distance of about before he disappeared from sight. Korda immediately realised his photograph had the attributes of a portrait. Later, Korda said of this photograph, "I remember it as if it were today … seeing him framed in the viewfinder, with that expression. I am still startled by the impact … it shakes me so powerfully".

During the rally, Korda took pictures of Cuban dignitaries and famous French existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, both admirers of Guevara at the time. Included in the film roll were shots of all the speakers and two pictures of Che's brief appearance. The classic picture appears on frame number 40 shot horizontally.

The first photograph had Guevara framed alone between the silhouette of Jorge Masetti and a palm tree; the second with someone's head appearing above his shoulder. The first picture, with the intruding material cropped out and the image rotated slightly, became Guevara's most famous portrait. The editor of ''Revolución'' where Korda worked, decided to use only his shots of Castro, Sartre, and de Beauvoir, while sending the Che shot back to Korda. Believing the image was powerful, Korda made a cropped version for himself, which he enlarged and hung on his wall next to a portrait of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda,Iconic Photo of Che Guevara Now Half a Century Old
by the '' Latin American Herald Tribune'', 5 March 2010 and also gave copies to some others as a gift. It was not until 1986 that José Figueroa, an established photographer in his own right who printed for Korda and was his unofficially "adopted" son, suggested they try printing the full frame version of the portrait. Korda continued to print both versions of the image up until his death.Introduction: Korda's Che Moves Out into the World
by Trisha Ziff, January 2005

To take the photograph, Korda used a Leica M2 with a 90 mm lens, loaded with Kodak Plus-X pan film. In speaking about the method, Korda remarked that "this photograph is not the product of knowledge or technique. It was really coincidence, pure luck."Alberto Korda at The Art History Archive
by Brandi Leigh, November 2007

Alberto Korda

As a lifelong communist and supporter of the Cuban Revolution until his death, Alberto Korda claimed no payment for his picture. A modified version of the portrait through the decades was also reproduced on a range of different media, though Korda never asked for royalties. Korda reasoned that Che's image represented his revolutionary ideals, and thus the more his picture spread the greater the chance Che's ideals would spread as well. Korda's refusal to seek royalties for the vast circulation of his photograph "helped it become the ultimate symbol of Marxist revolution and anti-imperialist struggle."

However, Korda did not want commercialization of the image in relation to products he believed Guevara would not support, especially alcohol. This belief was displayed for the first time in 2000, when in response to Smirnoff using Che's picture in a vodka commercial, Korda claimed his moral rights (a form of copyright law) and sued advertising agency Lowe Lintas and Rex Features, the company that supplied the photograph. Lintas and Rex claimed that the image was in the public domain. The final result was an out-of-court settlement for US$50,000, which Korda donated to the Cuban healthcare system, saying, "If Che was still alive, he would have done the same."

After the settlement, Korda reiterated that he was not against its propagation altogether, telling reporters:

Use in Cuba

Cuban historian Edmundo Desnoes has stated that "Che's image may be cast aside, bought and sold and deified, but it will form a part of the universal system of the revolutionary struggle, and can recover its original meaning at any moment." That meaning's origin harkens back to when Korda's photograph was first published on 16 April 1961, in the daily Cuban newspaper ''Revolución'', advertising a noon conference during which the main speaker was "Dr. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara". The conference was disrupted when 1,300 CIA-supported counter-revolutionaries stormed the beaches of Cuba, in what became known as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. The image was thus republished a second time advertising the newly convened conference on April 28, 1961. Che, who died six years later, could have seen the photograph that would contribute to his iconic status.

The first time Cubans on a large scale became familiar with the photograph, despite its earlier reproduction in ''Revolución'', was upon Che's death in 1967. Upon the news of Che's execution, it was enlarged and draped on a banner down the five-story building of the Ministry of the Interior in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana