Fidel Castro illuminates National Museum
Spira Tlhankane | Friday April 28, 2017 14:17
The photo exhibition themed Fidel Castro at 90 is hosted by the Cuban Embassy in Botswana in collaboration with the Department of National Museum and Monuments. The month-long photo exhibition started on April 20 and will end on May 20. The objective of the exhibition is to celebrate the Cuban Revolution of 1959 that made Castro a national hero in Cuba.
The exhibition covers the various stages of the life of Castro through photographs taken by photojournalists at Prensa Latina News Agency. The exhibition is made of 90 photographs of the Cuban leader, selected by Prensa Latina from its archives of over 50-years of photographs.
The Cuban News Agency was born in 1959 and has more than four million images (negative) and more than 1.5 million colour negative films of cellulose acetate, more than three million tests contact paper, one million radiofotos, 4,800 newspaper and journals, more than 700,000 negative acetate cellulose, also owns more than 133 GB of digital images.
The National Museum is currently illuminated by the black and white photographs of the Cuban leader who died last year on November 25 aged 90.
The photographs mostly captured in Havana, Cuba in the 1960’s and 70’s expresses political and artistic traits of the photographers who captured the relatively known photos of the Cuban leader.
The pictures taken in different countries follow a trail of the revolutionary leader and theoretician from the time he was a young leader right until he died as old man.
The photos also show the other side of Castro besides his qualities as a statesman. Although he had strong ideological and revolutionary beliefs, the photographs depict the magic moments of his life as he engaged with his society and other leaders in the world at the time.
Every photo in the gallery has a description of time and place in order to help the viewer understand each stage of Castro’s life. The photographs reveal his personal interpretation on the face with close up shots and overall personality with the activities he engaged in like swimming, gun shooting, smoking among others.
Some of the pictures show how he interacted with his people and his capacity to lead them in that direction, which impacted on the lives of many people.
Castro was a friend of great leaders such as the late Nelson Mandela and hence he made an effort to understand the plight of the people of Africa with his numerous visits to the continent. The pictures show that he promoted social justice and basic services like health and education.
The photographs were printed on canvas in black and white. Although they are just part of Castro’s story in pictures, they cover vital stages of his life.