Cuba in Revolution at ICP

The exhibit on the Cuban Revolution of 1959 at ICP was an interesting one because it covered all the ground you could never get out of a history textbook. Through the photographic lens, we got to see the leaders of the revolution being regular people; Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were photographed skiing, playing baseball, drinking mate, smoking, etc. They seemed pretty similar to the regular people of Cuba, though we are reminded that they are not when shown certain photos such as Comandante Camillo Cienfuegos and Captain Rafael Ochoa at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC,.

It was exciting to me to see the iconic picture of Che Guevara, the one all the hipsters don on their T-shirts just because he looks cool, in many different publications. I learned that he is cropped out of the original photo where he poses with someone else. We also got a taste of the culture in Cuba during the time of revolution through photographs; we saw dancing, kissing, several family portraits, and a growing love for The Beatles.

Though this exhibit was more the contemporary and interesting one to me of the two, there was one part of the Mexican suitcase that was interestingly unique which the Cuban Revolution exhibit could not make up for. Only here did we get to see a photo in various stages of its’ printing: the negatives, the original prints, and the way they were edited and published. There we also were able to see the negatives that were lost and never published anywhere. Still, the Cuban exhibit was more enjoyable to me. And it too, gave us the privilege if viewing never before seen photos – it was actually quite strange to me that they had an entire room dedicated to photos of Che Guevara’s dead corpse from his death in Bolivia in 1967. These are the true war photos to me, the ones that the textbooks leave out. This gave me an appreciation for photography and the way that it captures themes which words sometimes fall short in describing.

The one photo that I was stunned by was “La Caballeria,” taken by Raul Corrales. This is the photo that my mind kept coming back to after seeing the exhibit. The photo demonstrates an aspect of photography that I think we have lost. I feel as though photographers of today take fewer risks. This photo is real, raw, and dangerous.

Photos from: http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/cuba