The Cuban photographer known as Korda, who died last May in Paris, is best known for his legendary portrait of Che Guevara, without a doubt one of the most often reproduced photographs on the planet. What is less known, however, is that beyond this iconic image, he produced a significant body of work which has earned him the status of one of the world’s great photographers. Assembled here together for the first time, their publication coincides with two major exhibitions in Paris of photographs from Cuba’s revolutionary years. One is devoted exclusively to Korda, while the other is a group show on the work of other photographers of that era. Both mark the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
During the 1950’s, Korda worked as a popular fashion photographer. His memorable shots of the famous Dior runway model Norka (who later became his wife) bring to mind Richard Avedon’s highly stylized shots for Vogue. Korda's interests shifted to photojournalism during Fidel Castro’s ascent to power in January of 1959. He became the chronicler of the Cuban Revolution, photographing Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and the enormous crowds that cheered them on. His work pleased Castro so much that he became his personal (though not official, he often liked to clarify) photographer. Korda accompanied him throughout Cuba, The United States and The Soviet Union, photographing him together with Nikita Khrushchev as they hunted, skied and visited Russian military fleets. Everything he experienced is unforgettably captured here in these astonishing, unedited images from an era during which the world just narrowly escaped nuclear cataclysm.