This is the only thing I was permitted to take a picture of before having to place my camera into my book bag. This was not only shocking, but also very irritating because it’s ironic how photography is prohibited in this museum especially. I wondered if this was a policy solely for the current exhibits or a general museum rule. I purposefully chose this museum due to my interest in photography.

I was expecting to see works of international photographers with breathtaking landscape photos or other styles. Instead, there were these two exhibits, The Mexican Suitcase and Cuba in Revolution, which I knew nothing about. The Mexican Suitcase was most intriguing because it showcases recovered images from the Spanish Civil War that were considered to be lost since 1939. The pictures present a chronological timeline of the war and a closer look at the lives of the people struggling to survive.

It caught my attention that an entire section in Cuba In Revolution was devoted to one man, Che Guevara, a major figure in the Cuban Revolution. I managed to sneak a picture of one of the never-before-seen images of Che’s death in Bolivia in 1967. This photo captures Che at his deathbed. The blood stains and his facial expression show that he doesn’t have that much left in him.

This photograph caught my eye because of Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev. I’ve read and learned about both of these historical figures, so I was awed to see both of them together in a real photograph. I thought how this picture made it possible for me to imagine them as real people and not just characters in a textbook. Both of these exhibits portrayed historical events with a personal touch making me feel the people’s story in the photographs.