Cuban Photography: From Korda to Today, the Eye That Captured Cuba

The Most Reproduced Image in History Was Born in Cuba

On March 5, 1960, at a memorial service along Havana’s waterfront, a 31-year-old photographer raised his Leica M2 and fired twice. In less than a second, Alberto Korda captured what would become the most reproduced photograph in history: the Guerrillero Heroico, the iconic portrait of Che Guevara in his beret with a defiant gaze.

But that image is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind it lies an extraordinary Cuban photographic tradition spanning over a century, documenting the beauty, pain, and resilience of an island that never stops looking forward.

The Epic Photographers: Korda, Corrales, and Salas

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 didn’t just transform the island’s politics — it created one of Latin America’s most powerful schools of photojournalism. Three names define that epic era.

Alberto Korda (1928–2001)

Born Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez in Havana, Korda began as a fashion photographer before becoming Fidel Castro’s personal photographer for a decade. His style combined the elegance of portraiture with the urgency of reportage.

Beyond the Guerrillero Heroico, Korda left thousands of images documenting the Revolution’s early years: massive rallies at the Plaza de la Revolución, volunteer sugarcane harvests, and intimate moments like Fidel and Che playing golf — a scene radiating humor and humanity.

Most remarkably, Korda never charged royalties for the Che photo. “The image doesn’t belong to me,” he said. “It belongs to the world.” He only sued once: when a vodka brand used it commercially.

Raúl Corrales (1925–2006)

If Korda captured the face of the Revolution, Raúl Corrales captured its body in motion. His masterpiece, La caballería (The Cavalry, 1960), shows militiamen on horseback raising Cuban flags — an image that looks like an epic painting but is pure documentarianism.

Corrales was the people’s photographer: peasants in the Sierra, workers in factories, children in the Literacy Campaign schools. His work connects Cuban photography to a tradition of social realism that honors the dignity of everyday life.

Osvaldo Salas (1914–1992)

The third pillar of the epic trio, Osvaldo Salas had worked as a photojournalist in New York before returning to Cuba. His international experience gave him a unique eye for capturing the tension between Cuba and the outside world. His portraits of world leaders visiting Havana are invaluable historical documents.

The Fototeca de Cuba: Guardian of Visual Memory

In 1986, in a colonial house in Old Havana, the Fototeca de Cuba was founded — the most important photographic archive in the Caribbean. Under the direction of María Eugenia Haya (Marucha), the institution began rescuing, cataloging, and exhibiting the nation’s visual heritage.

The Fototeca houses over 120,000 negatives and prints spanning from 19th-century daguerreotypes to contemporary digital photography. It serves simultaneously as museum, archive, school, and gallery — a space where Cuba’s past and present meet on photographic paper.

Beyond the Revolution: Contemporary Cuban Photography

Cuban photography didn’t stop in 1960. Subsequent generations expanded both themes and techniques:

René Peña explores racial identity and the Black Cuban body through provocative self-portraits that challenge stereotypes. Cirenaica Moreira documents everyday Havana life with a poetic sensitivity that transforms street corners, rooftops, and bread lines into extraordinary compositions.

Iván Soca uses conceptual photography to reflect on island isolation, while Leysis Quesada blends photography and performance to explore contemporary Cuban femininity.

What unites all these voices is an essential characteristic of Cuban photography: the ability to find beauty in scarcity and epic grandeur in the ordinary.

The Legacy: Why Cuba Remains So Photogenic

There’s something about Cuba that calls to the lens. Classic American cars parked before peeling colonial facades. Caribbean light falling on the Malecón at sunset. Sun-weathered faces telling stories without words.

But reducing Cuba to a pretty postcard would be a mistake. The best Cuban photography — from Korda to today — has always sought something deeper: documenting life as it is, with its contradictions, its stubborn joy, and its quiet resistance.

In times when the fuel crisis has shuttered art schools and connectivity is precarious, young Cuban photographers keep shooting — many now with cell phones, but with the same eye inherited from Korda and Corrales.

Because in Cuba, taking photographs isn’t a luxury. It’s a way of existing.

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Cuban photography proves that the most powerful art is born from necessity, not excess. From the click of a Leica in 1960 to a cell phone shutter in 2026, Cuba keeps looking at itself with eyes that never blink.