Che Guevara

Che Guevara has become a nearly timeless figure in counterculture movements worldwide. As a young medical student he traveled throughout South America on a motorcycle, a journey that exposed him to such poverty, hunger, and disease that he gave up medicine and devoted the rest of his short life to rebellion, notably with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro.

This pensive and highly desirable photograph-perhaps second only to that of Michael Korda’s iconic image of “Che” as “Guerrillero Heroico,” the bereted visage rebels have immortalized on t-shirts everywhere-stands out as one of renowned photographer Osvaldo Salas’s lasting images of the Cuban experience.

An original silver gelatin print of Guevara consumed in the smoke of his cigar, Salas has signed a separate sheet on the back of this cleanly framed 12″x16″ photograph, noting “Che 1963,” along with his signature above “Habana, Cuba” in pencil. The 20″x24″ metal frame features a thin, bright red fillet bordering the image, suggesting a splash of conflict to a man who would die before he turned 40 years old.

OSVALDO SALAS (1914-1992) is widely recognized as having been one of the world’s great press photographers. His international fame came not just from the quality of his work but also because he was so often in the right place at the right time. He received many awards, diplomas and honors for his photography, including being acclaimed, in 1983, an International Master of Photography by the International Press Association.

ERNESTO “CHE” GUEVARA (1928-1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.