The photo that almost never ran
On March 5, 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez—known as Korda—took a portrait of Ernesto “Che” Guevara during a funeral for victims of a ship explosion in Havana. The newspaper Revolución didn’t publish it. The frame sat quietly in Korda’s studio, cropped and pinned to his wall.
From studio wall to global icon
Five months before Che’s death in 1967, Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli visited Havana and requested a portrait. Korda handed him two prints of the image. Within weeks of Che’s execution in Bolivia, Feltrinelli began mass-producing the image as posters—without crediting Korda.
The photographer who gave it away
For decades, Korda earned nothing from the image’s use. Cuba did not recognize intellectual property. In 2000, Korda won a legal case in London to block Smirnoff from using the image in ads. He received $50,000, which he donated for Cuban children’s medicine.
A gaze that still lingers
Korda’s photo became one of the most reproduced images in history, appearing on walls, money, shirts, and protest signs worldwide. Today, it still looms over Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, where tourists take photos in front of the image once passed over by a newspaper editor.
In 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez – known as Korda – captured a half-minute moment that would echo worldwide.
At a funeral in Havana, he saw Che Guevara appear behind Fidel Castro. In a reflex, he took two photos. One became the most reproduced image in… pic.twitter.com/5cGvcyACG7
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) April 14, 2025