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Email a friendRene Burri's image of Che finds its way absolutely everywhere
PUBLICATION: Che's image is ubiquitous. A resourceful street artist in Barcelona even makes a living from tourists by posing as a living statue of the Argentinian revolutionary - cigar clenched in his teeth, legs astride, clad in battle fatigues and black beret, writes NICK WRIGHT.
Instantly recognisable throughout the world, Che's image has a hard job retaining its revolutionary glamour under the onslaught of the market place.
But a welcome intrusion into this stream of images are the Che Guevara postcards. Twenty postcards bound into a cigar box, they make a quirky gift.
Magnum photographer Rene Burri photographed Che in 1963 in his ministerial office in revolutionary Cuba.
Burri recalls the event. "I remember bringing two Liecas and a Nikon fitted with 35, 50 and 85mm lenses to the session and shooting a total of six rolls of film in the course of the three-hour interview.
"Che was smoking. The large Havana, still bearing its label, had just been lit and the tobacco smoke was curling its way toward the ceiling.
"Che was leaning back, looking self-confidently and even defiantly at Laura Bergquist, the US journalist who was conducting the interview.
"When I asked if the Venetian blinds might be opened a bit, I received an unusually gruff answer from Che. 'The blinds remain closed.'
"I believe his irritated response had more to do with the pointed questions of the equally confident Bergquist than with my request to open the blinds.
"At the end of the shoot, we shook hands and he invited me to join him the following day at a festival in honour of the workers.
"The other photographs I shot in this sequence presented a more tired and excited man who uses his hands to express his agitation or to explain something.
"The picture that continues to be reproduced over and over again shows him completely relaxed. Here is a man who looks the world squarely in the face."
NICK WRIGHT