It's a great loss for Cuban culture. He was one of the top chroniclers of the revolution

Photographer Liborio Noval

He worked for the Cuban newspaper Revolucion after Fidel Castro's forces took power in 1959 - although it did not publish the famous picture.

Korda later worked as Castro's personal photographer.

"It's a great loss for Cuban culture. He was one of the top chroniclers of the revolution," said fellow Cuban photographer Liborio Noval.

Two shots

Korda took the photo for which he will be best remembered at a memorial service in March 1960.

Che Guevara stepped onto the podium and scanned the crowd. Korda snapped two quick shots, including the legendary one of the revolutionary with his beret, gazing like a prophet into the distance.

Che is an icon of the revolutionary left

Revolucion rejected the photo, instead running pictures of Castro and the French writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

But Korda recognised its greatness and kept the photo tacked to his wall for seven years, until an Italian journalist saw it.

Korda allowed the Italian to take it, and when Che Guevara was killed a few months later, it was published as a poster in Italy.

It immediately became one of the most recognisable images of leftist revolution, and has been reproduced on countless T-shirts, banners and posters since.

No profits

Although Korda kept the negative and the camera with which he took the photo, he never received royalties for the picture that the Maryland Institute of Art called "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century".

He was happy to see it used as a revolutionary banner - but when a vodka company used it in an advertisement last year, Korda drew the line.

Korda was Mr Castro's personal photographer

He filed suit in London.

"As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world," Korda said in the autumn of 2000.

"But I am categorically against the exploitation of Che's image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che."

Korda won an out-of-court settlement of about $50,000, which he donated to the Cuban medical system.

"If Che were still alive, he would have done the same," Korda told the Reuters news agency.

Korda's other memorable photos include shots of the victorious rebels arriving in Havana and Quixote of the Lamp Post, which shows a Cuban man sitting on a lamp post in a sea of people listening to a Castro speech.

He photographed Castro playing golf and fishing with Guevara, in the company of writer Ernest Hemingway, and staring at a tiger in a New York zoo.