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Che’s Afterlife: The Legacy
of an Image (2009)
By Michael Casey
Illustrated. 388 pages. Vintage Books.
$15.95
Casey,
Buenos Aires bureau chief for Dow Jones
Newswires, tap dances across history— and
the globe to examine intellectual property
and iconography through the lens of the
famous image of Che Guevara captured by
fashion photographer Alberto Korda. Some say
that only the famous photograph of Marilyn
Monroe, her skirt rising as she stands over
a subway grate, has been more reproduced,
writes Casey. The author does not neglect
the relevant biographical details or
history, but his focus is Che as a brand. He
wants to understand why the Korda image
remains so compelling to such a wide variety
of people and how it continues to represent
so many different (and differing) causes; he
suggests that the power of Che, the brand,
is in its ability to be anything to anyone.
The book can feel like a disorderly amalgam
of travelogue, visual criticism, biography
and reportage—fragments befitting a study of
globalized culture. Readers interested in
the impact of visual culture or in better
understanding the elusiveness of
intellectual property rights, particularly
in a global marketplace, will find much food
for thought.
Publishers Weekly
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