My dear friend Perfecto Romero was Che Guevara's personal Photographer from 1958 Here we see the private and Public Life of Che . In this collection of 18 prints we see Che @ the UN and at home with his baby Daughter. Images are listed as Che in Suger Mill, Che with Camillo, Che with Fidel. Che on a Horse pre-revolution 1958 etc etc Prices start at £100 for signed postcards. All prints and cards are signed and embossed with the Photographers stamp.I have a least 7 vintage prints made in the 1960s ...................... This is a unique collection made over 15 years and 47 trips to Cuba.Viva Fidel Viva Cubana.
 

Robert in Oxford on his 90th Birthday  April 1992 :: Here seen with Peter Hamilton @ Robert's retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art Oxford.

Cubana: The Buena Vista Years, Photographs and introduction :

 by Keith Cardwell

This Book is now Out of Print : You can obtain from Amazon.

Signed copies are available through the website.

Forward
At first it seems quite ridiculous to claim that Keith Cardwell’s pictures ‘sing’; a photograph is, after all, merely a flat surface born of an intense relationship between light, paper and chemicals – it promises no more, and yet, somehow, it delivers beyond all expectations time and again. When we view an image of a loved one our emotions are pricked by our association with the subject. When faced with an image of a stranger, our response is much more complicated. Initially, we search the photograph for anything we can relate to: do we recognize the location? Is the subject from an era we can identify with? Have we been in a similar situation? Failing that, we look for any suggestion of the ‘grand themes’ – if we can trace love, lust, anger, hate, pain, joy etc in the subject’s expression or situation then we bring our own experiences of these feelings to the picture, taking an active role in the viewing process.

The images on the following pages are not of people I know; and yet they do not feel like strangers. These characters give themselves freely to Keith’s camera, their energy exploding from the paper, bursting out of the constraints of a two-dimensional plane. Each photograph appears as a mini home movie – a story in miniature. We are encouraged to think beyond the moment caught on film, to guess at the relationships between characters, at what happened before and after the exposure was made. And then there is the sound. I can hear the assertive stamp of flamingo dancers feet hitting the floor, the slap of flip-flops as children run down the street, the wheezing of a bicycle straining under the weight of an entire family, and the burble of gossip exchanged between friends outside a truck shop. I can feel the long inhalation of breath as children stand on the shore sucking the sea breeze deep into their lungs, and the monotonous hum of a television offering comfort to an elderly man. Now and again there is a change of pace: a dancer stands in a cavernous room contemplating her next move, a mother nurses her baby on the steps leading to her house, and a little girl hides in the shadow cast by a statue of Hemingway – quieter moments.

Keith once described himself as a ‘pickpocket’ photographer, a technique he learned as a way of dealing with people who were reluctant to have their picture taken. Looking at these images, the exchange between subject and photographer seems much more honest and mutual than this term suggests. The people who offer themselves to Keith’s camera do so openly, and in the knowledge that the resulting images will be treated with respect and affection. They enter into this, often-brief relationship with their eyes, and hearts open. In return, Keith acknowledges their problems, passions and aspirations by sharing his own, albeit through the lens of his camera. He chooses what to include and what to exclude; he catches a fleeting smile or a nervous giggle and fills the frame with positive emotion. These people do not turn away from Keith because he does not turn away from them, or their situation. He embraces their honesty and trust, and gives something of himself in exchange. Keith sees into the souls of his subjects; and their souls are singing.

Tracy Hallett
Feature editor Black & White Photography Magazine
Assistant editor Outdoor Photography Magazine

 Keith Cardwell Portfolio of Fine Art Photography

China:

Sweet and Sour : Photos by Keith Cardwell