The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

esistance hero in general, of hope concentrated in the facial expression of a tragic
figure. It has adorned the chests of mourners as a mark of solidarity at funerals of
resistance leaders around the world. 134
A few months before Guevara’s death in 1967, Korda gave a print of the image to
Italian leftist publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who brandished a request for a copy
from a senior Cuban government official. Its first public use in posterised form
predated Guevara’s death when it graced a billboard in the Plaza Revolución when
Castro read a letter from Guevara to an Organisation of Latin American Solidarity
conference in July 1967. However, shortly after his death, Feltrinelli used the
photograph to make a textless poster, which sold millions of copies earning Feltrinelli
five million dollars. In Cuba, the photograph formed the basis of portrait posters
displayed at the mass rally in October 1967 when Castro confirmed Guevara’s death
and delivered his famous eulogy. Frémez, the printmaker, remembered working all
night preparing the poster from Korda’s photograph, using red paper, the only colour
available. Korda’s image was also enlarged to cover the ten‐story Interior Ministry
building on the Plaza. After 1967, the Korda image went on to be reproduced,
multiplied and distributed numerous times through posters, T‐shirts, murals,
commemorative postage stamps and an engraved portrait on Cuban banknotes. 135
While Korda expressed annoyance at some of this “unauthorised borrowing” of his
Guevara image, he expressed his delight “that his photograph … inspired socialist
revolutionaries for more than three decades”. Korda however sought to prevent the
image being “trivialised” in ‘inappropriate’ commercial settings. Korda successfully
sued a pop star for reproducing the image in a way that he saw as disrespectful. Later,
he also sued an advertising agency for using it in an advertising campaign promoting
a brand of vodka, as well as the photographic agency that supplied the “iconic” image.
Nikon advertisement with the words “a portrait that made such a noise in the world cost the camera a
soft click” (David Kunzle, Che Guevara: Icon, Myth, and Message, p 107).
134 On 17 May 2003, mourners at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, South Africa wore Che t‐shirts as a
mark of solidarity and respect at the funeral of Walter Sisulu.
135 David Kunzle, Che Guevara: Icon, Myth, and Message, pp 58‐60.
102