Alberto Korda is internationally recognised as one of the masters of revolutionary Cuban photography whose portraits of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro inspired a generation of radical youth throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His most famous image is undoubtedly his powerful 1960 portrait of Che entitled Heroic Guerrilla, which has since become the most reproduced image in the history of photography. What is less known is that prior to the revolution in 1959 Korda was considered to be the ‘Avedon of Cuba’, a progressive fashion photographer whose portraits of leading Cuban models such as his second wife Norka graced the covers of leading fashion magazines around the world. Equally, his work of the 1970s and 1980s, that witnessed a prolonged discovery of underwater photography alongside a return to fashion, has been largely neglected.
This book covers all aspects of Korda’s extraordinary career with specific reference to his interest in fashion, the revolution and other features of Cuban society. Starting with his early advertising work from the early 1950s the book traces Korda’s entry into the world of fashion and his belief in what he termed an ‘aesthetics of beauty’. He explored this idea not only in the sensuous curves of the female form but also in the unique landscape of Cuba as well as within the magnificence of the heroic revolutionary. The book also includes his extensive documentation of Castro and Che. A Revolutionary Lens is a celebration of Korda’s belief in beauty and has been edited with full support of Alberto Korda’s daughter Diana Diaz of the Korda estate. All prints that appear in the book have been completed under the supervision and care of José A. Figueroa, Alberto Korda’s photographic assistant throughout the 1960s and 70s.