Shots of the revolution (cuban)

[naaman fletcher]

A display depicting one of the symbolic political events of the 20th century opens at Garage Center for Contemporary Culture on March 11. Over 250 original photographs explore the visual legacy of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.

The exhibition features works from over 30 photographers from Cuba, the United States and the USSR exploring everyday life in Cuba before and after the revolution. Only a lazy photojournalist who lived and worked in 1950s-1960s did not pay a visit to the Island in the Caribbean.

The works reconstruct the chain of events that led Cuba from US-backed Fulgencio Batista’s corrupted gangster paradise to the state of Che and Fidel, the state of the Cuban people. Photographers back in the 1960s saw Cuban revolutionaries as true idols. Most of them openly spoke of their solidarity with the Cuban Revolutionary movement. And the photographs have forever captured the face of the Cuban counterculture and rebellion.

Initially both Cuban and international photographers had unprecedented access to Fidel Castro and his young communist guerillas. Many of the photographs that were taken at dawn of the dramatic changes capture the spontaneity of the revolution.

http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/cuba-revolution-exhibition-moscow/

[dipsydoodle]

1. Thanks for posting.

Shame most of you can't go to the island. There are great collections of photographs at both Ernesto's Mausoleum in Santa Clara and at the old Moncada Barracks in Santiago De Cuba where in most respects it all started back in 1953.

Alberto Korda's stills remain the most famous. Amazon have usually got used copies cheap : http://www.amazon.com/Cuba-Korda-Christophe-Loviny/dp/1920888640/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302598837&sr=1-2

"Self Portrait Che Guevara" is good too because its got his own camera work in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Portrait-Che-Guevara-Ernesto/dp/1876175826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302599421&sr=1-1

Hopefully the exhibition of such a prestigious collection of photographs will also come to London.