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| Lee Lockwood: the American photojournalist who captured Castro's Cuba on camera | Lee Lockwood: the American photojournalist who captured Castro's Cuba on camera |
| (30 days later) | |
| It was late 1958, America was firing rockets into the sky, and Lee Lockwood was bored. Standing at Cape Canaveral with his camera in hand, Lockwood watched wearily as the latest in America’s attempts to best Russia in the space race fizzled out, dropping from the sky. He wasn’t alone; other photographers were around, also itching for a better job. One spoke up: had the fellers seen the latest happenings in Cuba? It sure looked like a revolution was coming. | It was late 1958, America was firing rockets into the sky, and Lee Lockwood was bored. Standing at Cape Canaveral with his camera in hand, Lockwood watched wearily as the latest in America’s attempts to best Russia in the space race fizzled out, dropping from the sky. He wasn’t alone; other photographers were around, also itching for a better job. One spoke up: had the fellers seen the latest happenings in Cuba? It sure looked like a revolution was coming. |
| That settled it: Lockwood boarded a plane to Havana. He arrived, camera in hand, in Havana on 31 December 1958. In a spell of fortuitous timing, Fidel Castro, the fiery revolutionary who had been a thorn in the side of dictator Fulgencio Batista for years, took power the very next day. | That settled it: Lockwood boarded a plane to Havana. He arrived, camera in hand, in Havana on 31 December 1958. In a spell of fortuitous timing, Fidel Castro, the fiery revolutionary who had been a thorn in the side of dictator Fulgencio Batista for years, took power the very next day. |
| One might predict complications in tracking down a revolutionary leader fresh from a victorious takeover, but Lockwood didn’t seem to encounter them. Spending his first few days in Cuba driving around the country, pulling over to ask if people had seen him, Lockwood found Castro on 5 January. He introduced himself by walking up to him, telling him he was American and asking to take his photo. | One might predict complications in tracking down a revolutionary leader fresh from a victorious takeover, but Lockwood didn’t seem to encounter them. Spending his first few days in Cuba driving around the country, pulling over to ask if people had seen him, Lockwood found Castro on 5 January. He introduced himself by walking up to him, telling him he was American and asking to take his photo. |
| “They sort of hit it off,” says Nina Wiener, the editor at Taschen who went through Lockwood’s archives with him in 2008 to create a new edition of his 1967 book, Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fidel. “Lee was a really intellectual guy. He was more than just a photographer … very sharp, very adventurous, very political … He had spent a lot of time studying Castro’s philosophy and communism. He wasn’t looking for a good picture, he was looking for the whole story.” | “They sort of hit it off,” says Nina Wiener, the editor at Taschen who went through Lockwood’s archives with him in 2008 to create a new edition of his 1967 book, Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fidel. “Lee was a really intellectual guy. He was more than just a photographer … very sharp, very adventurous, very political … He had spent a lot of time studying Castro’s philosophy and communism. He wasn’t looking for a good picture, he was looking for the whole story.” |
| Lockwood was among only a few photographers documenting Cuba at the time, and one of even fewer Americans allowed in the country. South African photographer Grey Villet and Castro’s personal photographer Korda (famous for his iconic image of Che Guevara) also documented Cuba, but Lockwood’s work stands out. His photos show all sides of Castro; from the slightly doughy man doing shirtless pull-ups in his garden, to the orator who would become a blur on stage as he delivered another fierce speech. And while Lockwood was snapping, he and Castro would chat. “A conversation with Castro is an extraordinary experience and, until you get used to it, a most unnerving one,” Lockwood recalled. “When delivering an argument, Castro was as careful, as patient, and as logical as a spider spinning a web; its conclusion leaves you gasping and entangled, yet marvelling in spite of yourself.” | Lockwood was among only a few photographers documenting Cuba at the time, and one of even fewer Americans allowed in the country. South African photographer Grey Villet and Castro’s personal photographer Korda (famous for his iconic image of Che Guevara) also documented Cuba, but Lockwood’s work stands out. His photos show all sides of Castro; from the slightly doughy man doing shirtless pull-ups in his garden, to the orator who would become a blur on stage as he delivered another fierce speech. And while Lockwood was snapping, he and Castro would chat. “A conversation with Castro is an extraordinary experience and, until you get used to it, a most unnerving one,” Lockwood recalled. “When delivering an argument, Castro was as careful, as patient, and as logical as a spider spinning a web; its conclusion leaves you gasping and entangled, yet marvelling in spite of yourself.” |
| Lockwood made several trips to Cuba over the decade, spending time with Castro almost every time he went back. There were times he didn’t get even one frame of Castro, instead travelling the country to meet workers in factories, driving to the Sierra Maestra mountains to see military encampments, interviewing political prisoners from their jailhouse bunks. | Lockwood made several trips to Cuba over the decade, spending time with Castro almost every time he went back. There were times he didn’t get even one frame of Castro, instead travelling the country to meet workers in factories, driving to the Sierra Maestra mountains to see military encampments, interviewing political prisoners from their jailhouse bunks. |
| In 1967, he released a book about his time in the country, called Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fidel: a small hardback with 100 black and white shots inside. Arriving on shelves while the Cuban missile crisis was fresh in the minds of the American public, some in the US voiced suspicions about Lockwood’s ties to the leader. Lockwood responded: “If he is really our enemy, as dangerous to us as we are told he is, then we ought to know as much about him as possible.” | In 1967, he released a book about his time in the country, called Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fidel: a small hardback with 100 black and white shots inside. Arriving on shelves while the Cuban missile crisis was fresh in the minds of the American public, some in the US voiced suspicions about Lockwood’s ties to the leader. Lockwood responded: “If he is really our enemy, as dangerous to us as we are told he is, then we ought to know as much about him as possible.” |
| There are fascinating stories within. Lockwood recalls being picked up at 2am to help Castro host the visiting Swiss ambassador, “an affable pigeon-shaped man”, because Castro doesn’t know what to do with him (they go for coffee at an all-night pizzeria). Lockwood interviews a prisoner serving a three-year sentence for giving his shoes to a counterrevolutionary. But the most incredible story is the body of the book: Lockwood and Castro’s marathon, seven-day interview, which covers everything from censorship to homosexuality, Cuba’s huge population of political prisoners to racial issues in the US. | There are fascinating stories within. Lockwood recalls being picked up at 2am to help Castro host the visiting Swiss ambassador, “an affable pigeon-shaped man”, because Castro doesn’t know what to do with him (they go for coffee at an all-night pizzeria). Lockwood interviews a prisoner serving a three-year sentence for giving his shoes to a counterrevolutionary. But the most incredible story is the body of the book: Lockwood and Castro’s marathon, seven-day interview, which covers everything from censorship to homosexuality, Cuba’s huge population of political prisoners to racial issues in the US. |
| Reading the interview is like watching a fistfight; one jabs, the other parries, both circle warily. All the intimacy that has built up in their previous encounters is gone as they sit at rough wooden tables, smoking, arguing. Lockwood recalled later: “He listened with absolute attention, his dark eyes fastened on mine. I had the feeling that he was already composing answers to questions I might ask.” | Reading the interview is like watching a fistfight; one jabs, the other parries, both circle warily. All the intimacy that has built up in their previous encounters is gone as they sit at rough wooden tables, smoking, arguing. Lockwood recalled later: “He listened with absolute attention, his dark eyes fastened on mine. I had the feeling that he was already composing answers to questions I might ask.” |
| Lockwood is tough on Castro, and Castro on him. Frequently, Castro becomes irritated with his persistence, while Lockwood loses his patience when Castro evades a question. It is exhausting, and Lockwood goes to bed overwhelmed: “As I drifted quickly off to sleep, my last conscious thought was the rueful reflection that I was like a moth that had set out looking for a little light and had flown straight into a laser beam.” He wakes to find a chipper Castro, ready to start all over again. | Lockwood is tough on Castro, and Castro on him. Frequently, Castro becomes irritated with his persistence, while Lockwood loses his patience when Castro evades a question. It is exhausting, and Lockwood goes to bed overwhelmed: “As I drifted quickly off to sleep, my last conscious thought was the rueful reflection that I was like a moth that had set out looking for a little light and had flown straight into a laser beam.” He wakes to find a chipper Castro, ready to start all over again. |
| There is no sense of pandering or romanticising: it is two men, rather enjoying a polarised intellectual debate. “I think Lee admired some parts of Castro and despised parts of him. I think he saw him as a whole human being, when it was not popular to do so,” Wiener says. “I think Castro saw in him that he was really an independent journalist, working on his own. He saw his independent spirit and his fairness. I think he liked him.” | There is no sense of pandering or romanticising: it is two men, rather enjoying a polarised intellectual debate. “I think Lee admired some parts of Castro and despised parts of him. I think he saw him as a whole human being, when it was not popular to do so,” Wiener says. “I think Castro saw in him that he was really an independent journalist, working on his own. He saw his independent spirit and his fairness. I think he liked him.” |
| Photojournalism was enjoying a golden age. With magazines such Life and the Saturday Evening Post on dining tables across the US, Lockwood had a huge audience for his images. In addition to Cuba’s revolution, he would also end up documenting the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement in the US. But despite this, his photography was not published widely: Wiener estimates only 25-30 of his colour images had been published previously. When she went to his house to see if Taschen could rerelease his book, she found more than 10,000 rolls of black and white film and 1,400 colour, 33mm slides. “Usually if I go to an archive that is 50 years old, they’re all scratched, faded, someone has spilled coffee on something at one point. But everything was perfect! It was incredible.” | Photojournalism was enjoying a golden age. With magazines such Life and the Saturday Evening Post on dining tables across the US, Lockwood had a huge audience for his images. In addition to Cuba’s revolution, he would also end up documenting the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement in the US. But despite this, his photography was not published widely: Wiener estimates only 25-30 of his colour images had been published previously. When she went to his house to see if Taschen could rerelease his book, she found more than 10,000 rolls of black and white film and 1,400 colour, 33mm slides. “Usually if I go to an archive that is 50 years old, they’re all scratched, faded, someone has spilled coffee on something at one point. But everything was perfect! It was incredible.” |
| After Castro, then the Vietnam war, Lockwood moved to Boston. He spent more time in the US: snapping pictures of Marilyn Monroe at a ball game, even becoming good friends with celebrity chef Julia Child. “Even though he was adventurous, taking off to tackle communist regimes, he was also this cosy Boston intellectual,” Wiener says. When she met Lockwood in 2008, by then retired in Florida, he was thrilled at the interest in his photos. He died in 2010, before the book was finished, and before US president Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba in 2016, heralded as the beginning of the end of antagonism between the two countries. | After Castro, then the Vietnam war, Lockwood moved to Boston. He spent more time in the US: snapping pictures of Marilyn Monroe at a ball game, even becoming good friends with celebrity chef Julia Child. “Even though he was adventurous, taking off to tackle communist regimes, he was also this cosy Boston intellectual,” Wiener says. When she met Lockwood in 2008, by then retired in Florida, he was thrilled at the interest in his photos. He died in 2010, before the book was finished, and before US president Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba in 2016, heralded as the beginning of the end of antagonism between the two countries. |
| Even in the 1960s, more than half a century before Obama would make a deal with Castro’s brother Raúl, Lockwood was already making the case for detente between the US and Cuba – directly to Castro himself. After one such plea in Lockwood’s book, Castro rails against the US, then concedes: “I do not at all believe it will be immediate, but rather a great deal of time will pass – it will have to happen that better relations exist between our two peoples.” | Even in the 1960s, more than half a century before Obama would make a deal with Castro’s brother Raúl, Lockwood was already making the case for detente between the US and Cuba – directly to Castro himself. After one such plea in Lockwood’s book, Castro rails against the US, then concedes: “I do not at all believe it will be immediate, but rather a great deal of time will pass – it will have to happen that better relations exist between our two peoples.” |
| “It seems to me that we should try to lessen that time as much as possible, rather than prolong it for unnecessary reasons,” Lockwood says. | “It seems to me that we should try to lessen that time as much as possible, rather than prolong it for unnecessary reasons,” Lockwood says. |
| “I think that is reasonable,” Castro says. “Let’s go to lunch.” | “I think that is reasonable,” Castro says. “Let’s go to lunch.” |
| • Castro’s Cuba: An American Journalist’s Inside Look at Cuba, 1959–1969 by Lee Lockwood is published by Taschen priced £44.99. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for £36.89. | • Castro’s Cuba: An American Journalist’s Inside Look at Cuba, 1959–1969 by Lee Lockwood is published by Taschen priced £44.99. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for £36.89. |