Now today’s entry was going to be a video of Mrs Dave hula-hooping, but thanks to Steve Jobs and his FireWire 800 nonsense, it’ll have to wait. However do not despair – I thought I’d share some of my collection of revolutionary-leaders-as-condiments-collection with you. I suppose I should somehow make this something to do with photography, so I’ll mention the iconic image was taken by Alberto Korda in 1960 at a funeral for 136 people killed in a counter revolutionary attack. It has been used on ever more inappropriate bits of tat ever since. Korda died in 2001, but did say: “As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world, but I am categorically against the exploitation of Che’s image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che.”
Last week’s Sunday Times had an advert for a luxury car dealership using old Ernesto’s mug for no apparent reason. I suppose Leica’s use on the cover of their booklet (below) can at least be explained by Korda using one of their M2 cameras with a 90mm lens to take the picture. Now where’s that t-shirt?
P.S. One of the advantages of t’interweb is how you can re-write history ala ‘The Commissar DIsappears’/Ministry of Truth etc. So I thought I’d just slip in a mention that Che’s sugar gets me another mention in dispatches in this weeks British Journal of Photography FJ Chrome column. FJ’s secret remains in safe hands.
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