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Great Cuban photographers

They were all magnificent lens artists who stood out for one job or another and who, in the end, make up the pantheon of the greats of photography in Cuba. And of course there are many more that are not mentioned here.

Jesse Fernandez (1925-1986)
Among the photographers themselves, he is recognized as a highly educated man and the best photographer in the entire history of Cuba.
Undoubtedly there are others better known internationally for circumstances added to his talent, but they themselves do not hesitate to point out that he is the highest expression in the specialty.

Constantino Arias (1920-1991)
His work has been valued as the most complete graphic work in the Cuban history of the last twenty years of the Republican period and of obligatory consultation for the history of Cuban photography.
Part of that qualification is due to the fact that he was the professional photographer of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba from 1941 to 1959. The Havana society of the 40s and 50s saw himself portrayed in his magnificent photos.

Mario Garcia Joya, Mayito. (1938-)
He is now best known as a cinematographer, but his origins were painting and photography.
Without a doubt, he is one of the most influential and internationally recognized photographers that Cuba has produced and he also studied painting at the San Alejandro National School of Plastic Arts.

Pepe Agraz (1909-1982)
The great photos of sports events in Cuba always had the signature of Pepe Agraz.
But although he was a specialized sports photographer, where he pioneered sports action photos, particularly boxing, he also had notable work such as Fidel Castro's entry into Havana and the explosion of the steamer La Coubre.
From a street photographer, he came to be considered an experienced photojournalist for social events and later in the press, particularly in sports, recording boxing tournaments and baseball series for half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Armand (1905-1992)
The two most famous and sought-after photographers in Havana in the 1940s and 1950s were Armand, known as “the photographer to the stars” and his disciple, Narcy (1908-1968).
Of course, we are referring to radio, theater and television stars, who wanted to imitate the Hollywood style, which is why the great divas of the time such as Rita Montaner, Rosita Fornés, Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot or Josephine Baker had themselves photographed in scenes that recreated the sophistication and glamor of the mecca of cinema.

Osvaldo Salas (1914-1992)
A great definition was given to us by Osvaldo Salas, one of the great Cuban photographers of the 20th century, and that is that the camera is not what defines it. He did not deny technology and he knew it very well and was up to date on the innovations in this matter, but he maintained that a good photograph was achieved based on five percent technique and ninety-five percent imagination. And that is a postulate that will not change.
Like other greats, in his adolescence he enrolled in the San Alejandro Academy, because he wanted to be a painter, but he had to leave it because he had to work.
He was a courier, welder and electrician in a communications equipment workshop, and there happened to be photography enthusiasts there, who showed him a camera and there he found not only a goal, but also a way to approach his ambition to be a painter.

Raúl Corrales (1925-2006)
Born in Ciego de Ávila, he was a restaurant doorman, until he decided to make a living as a photographer, a job in which he worked in many Cuban publications. He published in the newspapers Hoy, Revolución and the magazines Bohemia and Carteles, at the National Institute of Agrarian Reform.

Korda (1928-2001)
Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, known by his artistic name of Alberto Korda, is recognized as one of the masters of Cuban photography.
But apart from that, Korda is considered the most versatile of the Cuban photographers of his generation. A leading figure in fashion photography in the 1950s, he gave his works a true artistic category.

Alberto Korda (right) taking a picture of Che Guevara (centre), with Guevara having his arms linked to his wife Aleida March.

Liborio Noval (1934-2012)
From a market researcher at the Siboney advertising company in 1952, he became a photographer for that company until 1960, when he moved to the newspaper Revolución, then Granma where he worked for four decades until his death. Liborio started in photography a bit by chance and accident next to another great one, Raúl Corrales.

• Tags
• #photographers
• #Cuban
• #lens
• #Jesse Fernández
• #Constantino Arias
• #Pepe Agraz
• #Armand
• #Korda
• #Liborio Noval