Published Saturday, May 26, 2001
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/florida/digdocs/096248.htm
Alberto Korda, photographed guerrilla icon `Che' Guevara HAVANA -- (AP) -- Alberto Korda, the photographer whose images helped make Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara into a guerrilla icon, died in Paris on Friday of a heart attack, according to relatives here. He was 72. Korda, whose real last name is Diaz Gutierrez, worked with the newspaper Revolucion immediately after Fidel Castro's guerrillas toppled Fulgencio Batista and was later a personal photographer for Castro.
His photos of Guevara and the early revolutionary period made him famous.
His most acclaimed photo of Guevara, taken in Havana in 1960, showed the rebel leader, with curly hair and a tilted beret, staring with an intense gaze into the distance.
The photograph was taken at a memorial service for more than 100 crew members of a Belgian arms cargo ship killed in an attack that Cuba blamed on U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary forces.
After Guevara's death in Bolivia in 1967, the photograph was used on posters and T-shirts around the world.
Last year, Korda won a copyright protection suit against a vodka company that tried to use the image in advertisements.
``As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world,'' Korda said at the time. ``But I am categorically against the exploitation of Che's image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che.''
Korda said he had never made any money from the image of Guevara.
Other well-known Korda photos show Castro playing golf with Guevara in 1959 and a farmer perched atop a lamppost above a vast crowd attending a Castro speech the same year.
He was in Paris attending an exhibition of his works.
``He was thinking of returning tomorrow night,'' said one of his five children, Norka Diaz, who confirmed he had died. She said it was not clear when his body would be returned to Cuba.
The Argentine-born Guevara was a key figure in Cuba's 1959 revolution.
He later tried to organize or assist rebellions in the Congo and in Bolivia.
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