[1] Korda, whose real name was Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, was born on September 14, 1928, in Havana, Cuba.
The quality of Korda's work as a beginner was very poor; after a few months the image became blurry and the paper yellowed.
[3] When he opened his first studio, Korda had an opportunity to learn from his mistakes and to stop the yellowing process by using the right chemicals for the correct durations of time.
It was the money generated by these jobs that allowed Korda to develop his unique style of looking at an image from another angle, different from the traditional photographers' studios.
[4] In the early years, Korda was most interested in fashion because it allowed him to pursue his two favorite things, photography and beautiful women.
[6] Korda had unique creative ambition that he used to rise above in style when compared to the unimaginative cultural perspective of traditional Cuban photography.
In 1963 photos of Fidel and Nikita Khrushchev, taken by Korda, illustrated the differences in both men that were evident in their respective politics.
When Korda came back to his home, his daughter barely recognized him: his hair and beard were long and he hadn't showered for months.
[4] Korda was a photographer for the Cuban newspaper Revolución when he produced on March 5, 1960, the iconic image of Che Guevara that became a worldwide symbol of revolution and rebellion.
He never received any royalties for the image, because Castro did not recognize the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
He appeared briefly in the pre-title sequence of Wim Wenders' film Buena Vista Social Club in 1999, although he was uncredited.
In an interview from 2018 the Canadian filmmaker talked about the lawsuit: It played at over a hundred film festivals and was on its way to becoming a cult hit when, about six months into my tour with the film, Jurgen and I got hit with a million dollar (Canadian) lawsuit for copyright infringement by the Korda estate.The lawsuit was launched in France, which has some of the toughest copyright laws in the world, but the sixty-page court document was delivered to my door in Toronto by a local sheriff, so it was pretty heavy.
I just figured everyone else in the world was jerking off to the image, so I might as well show it literally.The film's slogans, particularly "The Revolution is My Boyfriend," started to be widely quoted online and on t-shirts and banners, neatly mirroring the radical chic critiqued in the movie.Excerpt from Make Porn, Not War: An Interview With Bruce LaBruce.
"Solo exhibitions of his works have been held in Helsinki, Finland, 1962; the Galleria H. Diafragma Canon, Milan, Italy, 1985; Galería Servando Cabrera, Havana, 1986; Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, 2000; COEX, Seoul, Korea, 2011.