The story about the image of Che
Guevara

- as
told by Alberto "Korda" Gutierrez (1928-2001) in Havana - December
'93

The 5th of
March 1960 the Belgian arms transport "La Coubre" exploded in Havana
harbour, killing 136 people. As a staff-photographer at the Cuban
newspaper "Revolution", Alberto "Korda" Gutierrez was assigned to cover
the following memorial ceremony held in Havana. Among the prominent
guests were Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Fidel Castro held
one of his endless speeches and Korda was shooting away, when Che
Guevara suddenly appeared on the stage. Korda pointed his Leica at Che
and managed to make two shots of him, before Che turned around and
disappeared.

Back in his
darkroom Korda enlarged, among others, one of the Che frames. The editor
at "Revolution" picked a Castro-picture for the newspaper and returned
the rest. Korda liked the Che picture and put it on the wall in his
Havana-studio.

The picture
was still hanging on the wall in 1967, by now tobacco-tinted though,
when a man knocked on the door. The person did not present himself, but
handed over a letter of introduction from a high-ranking member of the
Cuban administration. The letter asked Korda to help this person in his
search for a good Che picture. Korda pointed at the wall saying: "This
is my best Che picture". The visitor agreed and asked for 2 copies of
the print. Korda told him to return the next day, which he did. When
asked the price of the prints, Korda replied, that since the visitor was
a friend of the revolution, he didn't have to pay.

What Korda
didn't know, was that the visitor was the famous Italian publisher
Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Well known in Europe for smuggling the "Dr.
Zivago" manuscript out of The Soviet Union. Feltrinelli came to Cuba
directly from Bolivia, where he had been negotiating the release of
Regis Debray. Having learnt from Debray, that Che Guevara was the
guerrilla-leader in Bolivia and that the end might be near, Feltrinelli
saw a business opportunity in the possible assassination of
Che.

The corpse
of Che Guevara was hardly cold in Bolivia, before you could buy big
posters, all around the world, with the Korda-image of Che. Copyright
Feltrinelli it said, down in the corner. Korda told me, that in half a
year, Feltrinelli sold 2.ooo.ooo posters. Later on the image has been
transformed, transplanted, transmitted and transfigured all over the
world.

Korda never
received a penny. For one reason only - Cuba had not signed the Berne
Convention. Fidel Castro described the protection of intellectual
property as imperialistic "bullshit".

©Michael
Harder Photography 2001