art
50 anniversary th
The
Cuban Revolution
CUBA
A look through the lens: 10 Magnum Photographers’ work goes on display at the
Magnum Print Room, which looks at Cuba over the past 50 years.
S
ince the fall of the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio
Batista in 1959 and the rise of Castro and the one-party
state, Cuba has remained an enigma. Having survived
over 40 years of US embargos, put in place to bring down
Castro’s government, Cuba has fascinated and enraptured
us through its silence, tough exterior and resilience. 1
January 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the revolution. Located
only 145 miles from Florida, USA, Cuba has fascinated people for
decades. But, what do we really know about this place?
The latest exhibition to look at this question, and visually offer
some answers is Cuba, which opens at the Magnum Print Room this
December. Cuba is a vast exhibition whose images tell several stories
that span five decades. Curated by Ben Burdett from Atlas Gallery
and Sophie Wright, Head of Culture at Magnum, the exhibition looks
deep into the many faces and ideas of Cuba throughout the past 50
years. Burdett comments: “We came up with the idea because there
are two photographers in particular who were very closely involved
with the early revolutionary period. Their work inspires us; we’ve
had a solo exhibition for Rene Burri. He’s particularly well known for
his photographs of Che Guevara smoking the cigar. Rene’s career,
as a photographer, began with a number of heroes that he set out
to photograph — Che, Picasso, and many others. Rene was one of
the photographers who inspired the idea of doing a group show.
The other was Burt Glinn (1925 – 2008) an American photographer.
His photographs are immediate and give a real sense of the whole
thing happening and unfolding. He was there the moment Castro
marched into Havana.”
Included in the exhibition are Eve Arnold’s images from before
the revolution, of the unfolding events in 1959 taken by Burt Glinn
and Bob Henriques, of life under Castro, both in the early days with
portraits of Castro and Che by Rene Burri, Elliott Erwitt and Andrew
St George and latterly of the crumbling beauty of Havana by Alex
Webb, David Alan Harvey and Christopher Anderson.
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of the
Cuba’s allure is ubiquitous, many photographers who have
travelled there, continued to return, creating a visual history
of a country that has always been on the periphery and often
misunderstood. Eve Arnold visited pre-revolutionary Cuba twice in
1954, the first trip to document the life of a young Cuban girl as part
of one of Magnum’s first group projects, Children Around the World.
She recently returned and photographed her subject, Juana, now
a middle-aged woman, for Magnum’s 50th anniversary book and
exhibition, Magnum Degrees.
Burt Glinn got the assignment of a lifetime when he flew in to
cover Castro’s progress to Havana in 1959 and returned in 2001
to show the President his original images of the revolution. Rene
Burri’s portraits of Che Guevara from 1963 are some of the most
well known in the world and he has returned to Cuba many times,
to see his pictures on t-shirts and hung on Havana’s walls. David
Alan Harvey and Alex Webb have produced intensely colourful
images of street life over numerous trips starting in the 1990s,
Webb in particular, producing some of his most well loved images
in the country. 
Sent to Havana with a journalist in 1954 for a story called The
Sexiest City in the World, Eve Arnold found the city very different
from its heyday of ten years before, with a curfew now enforced
and Batista’s tanks roaming the city. She still managed to take
poignant pictures of what nightlife existed, such as Bar Girl in a
Brothel included in the exhibition.
On New Year’s Eve 1958, Burt Glinn was at a party in New York,
when he heard the news that Batista was fleeing Cuba. He borrowed
money from Cornell Capa and his neighbours before catching what
would turn out to be the last flight to Cuba from Miami. Entering
Havana, he booked into a hotel near the presidential palace,
from where he watched the chaos on the streets. Making contact
with other correspondents, including French photographer, Bob
Henriques, who was later to become a Magnum Associate, they
 Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin. Courtesy of Magnum photos.

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Photograph by Rene Burri. Courtesy of Magnum Photos.

clubbed together to get a car and drive south from Havana to try taken from the moment of the revolution onwards. Some of the most
to find Fidel. They succeeded and Glinn and Henriques’s images of recent are taken by Martin Parr, with his characteristic, kitsch, high
the victory parade into Havana with its motley crew of guerrillas colour, gloss images of modern tourism in Cuba with everything
and supporters are hugely evocative — Castro’s gift for charming else in between. There are a huge number of photographers that
his people clearly evident. have been there, which illustrates the huge fascination that Cuba
Taken in 1963, Rene Burri’s picture of Che Guevara, Castro’s right has had for photographers, there was a fantastic wealth of material
hand man and Minister of Industry (1961 – 65), has been reproduced to build a show around.”
both with and without his permission, on everything from t-shirts Two decades later Alex Webb began his long-term love affair
to Swatch watches. As with Castro, this was a politician conscious of with the country, his fluid and intensely coloured compositions
include baseball fans, children playing in
“The photographs are incredibly immediate and show how the intensity of the street and daily life going on amongst
the experience produced such great work.“ the crumbling splendour.  More recently,
Christopher Anderson included scenes from
his public image and its power. Burri’s key frame of this charismatic Cuba in his personal project, Nonfiction. Using a Holga, Anderson
figure shows him leaning back in his office chair, triumphantly restricted himself to a single shot of each subject, producing
smoking a cigar. Che Guevara was assassinated in 1967. Earlier this imperfect yet evocative images of a cigar smoking local lady, one
year, Burri’s retrospective travelled to Havana on a tour of South of Havana’s beautiful old Cadillacs lovingly maintained since the
America, and while there he returned to the office in which he took revolution and kids playing in the sea. Burdett comments: “The
his famous image, to discover it preserved untouched — a time photographs are incredibly immediate and show how the intensity
capsule from a different era. of the experience produced such great work.”
Magnum’s relationship with Cuba has not always been The branding of the revolution was recorded by Martin Parr in his
straightforward. Another associate of the agency who captured signature brash, colourful style, whilst on assignment for a French
the scenes as Castro’s entourage reached the capital in 1959 was fashion magazine and Paolo Pellegrin, photographing for Newsweek,
Andrew St George. He had previously photographed Castro and catches glimpses of the capital while documenting Guatanamo
his revolutionary army in the Sierra Maestra before the march Bay’s post 9/11 high security prison, and its inhabitants, in stark
on Havana. He had amazing access to the rebels, but with time black and white. As Burdett concludes: “Ultimately the images
Castro’s men became suspicious. Relations eventually broke down, are placed in front of the viewer and the viewer is left to make up
although St George was to photograph Castro once more on his their mind, albeit seen through different photographers’ eyes, the
trip to New York in 1960. images speak for themselves.”
Two of Cuba’s biggest exports, cigars and baseball, reoccur in many Cuba runs from 2 December until 31 January 2009 at Magnum
of these images. Susan Meiselas, a visitor in the 1970s, photographed Print Room, London, EC1V 3RS. For further information visit:
children playing baseball in the streets of Havana. Burdett adds: “We www.magnumphotos.co.uk.
started looking at other work by other photographers that had been Cherie Federico

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