Cuba Libre 1959 (Hardcover)

A UNIQUE DOCUMENT OF POST-REVOLUTIONARY CUBA FROM A LEADING PHOTOJOURNALIST Two-time Magnum president Charles Harbutt, invited by the Castro movement to capture the revolution on film, catalogues the first incredible week in Havana. On New Year's Day, 1959, the news broke that Cuba's brutal dictator Batista had fled the country, looting it as he went. In the hills of the Sierra Mastra, the 32-year-old rebel leader, Fidel Castro, prepared his triumphal arrival in Havana. A 23-year-old Charles Harbutt covered those first heady days in the city at the express invitation of the Castro movement. What emerged is a unique document of the immediate post-revolutionary environment: an outstanding piece of living history. Harbutt's eye and his sympathy for people in front of the camera are enthralling and revelatory. His photos evoke the moment: the place; the euphoria that swept the people of Cuba in this brief and turbulent time.