Alberto Korda (1928–2001) - Fidel Castro conversando con grupo de chicas en una playa de Oriente — Revolucion, 1963.

Extraordinary auction: “Cuba: The Women of Korda”.

An unseen look: the Cuban woman through Korda’s lens

For the first time, a thematic auction entirely dedicated to the women photographed by Alberto Korda, one of the great masters of Cuban and universal photography, is presented on Catawiki.

** Description of this particular photograph:
A spontaneous scene captured by Alberto Korda in which Fidel Castro chats with a group of young women, some still in swimwear. The naturalness of the gestures and the closeness between the leader and the people reflect Korda’s talent for humanizing historical moments. A bright, fresh image where female youth symbolizes the optimism and vitality of those years.

* These images —coming directly from his personal archive and certified by his daughter and heir, Diana Díaz López— reveal a lesser known, but deeply revealing, facet of his work: Korda’s look at Cuban femininity, from the 1950s through his death.

The combination between:
• Direct provenance from the author’s archive.
• The personal and legal certification by Diana Díaz.
• The image quality, aesthetics, and historical value of each photograph.

Turns these pieces into extraordinarily valuable collectible items, both culturally and economically, whose prestige and value will only increase over time.

Before becoming the visual chronicler of the Revolution, Alberto Korda was a fashion and advertising photographer. In his Havana studio, he photographed models, actresses, and high-society women, capturing the tropical elegance, sensuality, and feminine sophistication of the pre-revolutionary era.

His mastery of natural light, clean composition, and empathy with his subjects defined a modern, elegant style that would soon transcend the commercial realm.
With the revolutionary triumph of 1959, Korda did not abandon that aesthetic sensibility, but transformed it. From then on, the woman became for him a symbol of dignity, work, motherhood, and struggle. His camera captured armed militiawomen with firm resolve and serenity, girls with futures in their eyes, mothers with their children in their arms, workers and students, always with a deeply humanist, respectful, and luminous vision.

These photographs not only document an era; they are portraits of female strength and beauty in all their dimensions. In them, the Cuban woman appears as the silent protagonist of a transforming society, and as the muse of an artist who knew how to see in her face the essence of change.
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* Original copies from the photographer’s personal archive. Authenticity and provenance guaranteed

Each photograph offered in this auction comes directly from Alberto Korda’s personal archive.
They are made from original negatives, preserving the tonal richness and depth characteristic of his work.

The Certificate of Authenticity signed by Diana Díaz López — THE ONLY person legally recognized and authorized to authenticate her father’s work — constitutes an absolute guarantee of legitimacy.
Diana Díaz López has been, for decades, the caretaker of her father’s personal archive, and her role as guardian of that legacy has been recognized both in Cuba and internationally. No other person in the world has the legal authority to issue Certificates of Authenticity for Alberto Korda’s works. Therefore, acquiring a photograph with her signing certificate is to secure a direct and legitimate link to the author, his original archive, and his family history.

In the art market, this legitimacy is more than a guarantee: it is a safe investment, a badge of exclusivity, and protection against the proliferation of apocryphal copies or unchecked prints circulating without backing.

It is important to note that copies made in later years lost much of the original quality, as the negatives deteriorated over time. The photographs included in this auction thus retain an intensity and purity of tones that are irreproducible.
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Alberto Korda and the Cuban woman: beauty, strength, and sensitivity.

Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, known as Alberto Korda (1928–2001), was an artist with a refined, deeply human gaze.

His early photographs, taken in the 1950s, were portraits of elegant women, models, and actresses of Havana’s pre-revolutionary glow. Korda mastered advertising aesthetics, glamour, and classic composition, in images that today are considered pioneers of fashion photography in Latin America.

After 1959, his lens turned to the women of the people, without losing the delicacy of his initial gaze. He portrayed milicianas with rifles on their shoulders, nurses, peasants, teachers, and mothers, and also schoolgirls and girls from poor neighborhoods, all under one vision: the woman as the vital force of the Cuban nation.

Korda transformed the image of the woman in Cuba: she was no longer an aesthetic object, but a symbol of dignity and prominence. His style, which combined beauty, empathy, and sobriety, created a visual narrative in which femininity was also resilience, tenderness, and hope.

This sensibility, beyond politics, makes Korda one of the most important female portraitists in Latin America and a photographer who knew how to see the soul behind the face.
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Note: Some descriptions are accompanied by illustrations from books about this image; the books shown are not included with the photograph for sale. The illustrative portraits by photographer Alberto Korda are also not included in the sale, nor other illustrative photographs.

Important: The photographs will be shipped well protected so they arrive to you in perfect condition.