
Hannah Shapiro
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
This auction has ended. View lot details
























Sold for US$3,072 inc. premium
Our Photographs specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator

Head of Department

Specialist, Head of Sale
Provenance
House Sale, North Bergen, New Jersey
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 2005
Literature
'This is Castro's Cuba Seen Face to Face', LIFE magazine, 15 March 1963, pp. 28-41
Peter Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2010), p. 349
Note
The travel chronology in Peter Galassi's exhibition catalogue Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century notes that the Magnum photographer traveled to Cuba on assignment for LIFE magazine from 23 January to 26 February, 1963. Americans were not permitted to visit Cuba at that time, but Cartier-Bresson's European passport allowed him entry. He was joined by fellow photographer René Burri, who was on assignment for Look magazine.
Their month-long itinerary began and ended in Havana. During the bulk of their trip, they journeyed to many parts of the country to document local businesses, public spaces, restaurants, a bull-breeding estate, a sugar refinery, a tractor center, and many other industrial sites.
The 15 March 1963 issue of LIFE featured an image of Fidel Castro on the cover, along with teaser 'Inside Castro's Cuba / A Penetrating Report in Pictures by Henri Cartier-Bresson'. Within the magazine, the 14-page article titled 'This is Castro's Cuba Seen Face to Face' was accompanied by 23 of Cartier-Bresson's photographs.
Three of the 12 vintage press prints included in this lot were published in the LIFE article. The reverses of the prints bear witness to Cartier-Bresson's jam-packed schedule, with various Magnum credit stamps, typed labels, and annotations, complete with his specific roll (8189-8261) and negative numbers written on each print.