ROBERTO SALAS CUBA CUBAN famous photographer new york city 50th street

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A great 8x10 inch 1960's photo by famed Cuban American photographer Roberto Salas with his stamp on the back of the photo.ROBERT SALAS 319 W. 50th ST., N.Y. CI. 5-9448Roberto Salas Santeria, 1963Osvaldo's son Roberto Salas was born in New York City in 1940. His photographic journey began in his father's studio where he would lend a helping hand after school. At the age of 15, Roberto left school and followed in his father's footsteps to become one of Cuba's most successful photographers. Roberto Salas has documented the revolution from the Sierra Maestra to the Bay of Pigs, as well as the only known meeting between Castro and Ernest Hemingway. He served as a U.N. correspondent and war correspondent in South East Asia, including Cambodia and Vietnam, spending a year behind the Vietcong lines. His artistry and great ability to capture the common people led to over 40 solo exhibitions worldwide and garnered more than 100 prizes and honorable mentions. In a joint retrospective with his father, two books of their beautifully crafted photographs were published: Ernesto Che Guevara, printed in 1997, and Fidel's Cuba: A Revolution in Pictures, printed in 1998.At 15 years old, Roberto Salas tagged along with his photographer father on an assignment on this Caribbean island to cover a group of Cuban activists who were opposed to the government. One of the activists Salas met during that 1955 trip was Fidel Castro. The turn of fate gave the budding shutterbug, whose father was Cuban, a front-row seat to the impending revolution.A photo of Fidel Castro in New York in 1959 taken by Roberto Salas. Courtesy of Roberto Salas Salas, who was born in New York, became part of a small group of photographers who were given what he calls "privileged" access to Castro -- allowing him to capture up-close images of the future president when the paparazzi was swarming."He was a magnet for cameras, photographers," Salas said.He was also given the chance to document images of Castro in more intimate settings.The images Salas shot of Castro with American author Ernest Hemingway and Castro in a more raw state -- including relaxing in a hammock with a cigar -- would become iconic. But a photo snapped on the day the American embassy closed in Havana would prove to be one of the most gripping."This guy was selling papers around what was the embassy ... I said let's take a picture of you with the newspaper," Salas recalled. The front page of that newspaper said, "Viva Cuba Libre" -- "Finally we're free."Salas' father, Osvaldo Salas, an award-winning photographer whose work was published in Life magazine and The New York Times, was also invited to cover Castro and did so for many years. Salas said his father used to be asked, "'Salas, what's your favorite photograph?' And my father used to say, 'I'm going to do it tomorrow.'""I thought it was just a line," Salas said. "But after my father passed, I realized that isn't a line, it's a concept ... saying you can always do it better."As an 18-year-old photographer in 1959, Roberto Salas departed on the adventure of his life. Fidel Castro, fresh from his victory over Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, personally asked the Bronx-born Salas and his father, Osvaldo, to be part of an exclusive group of photographers to chronicle the revolution.Osvaldo Salas, whose New York photo studio was the cultural epicenter of the tight-knit Cuban exile community, had earlier impressed Castro with his work.Those were heady days for both photographers and their subjects. The pair packed their bags, closed their New York studio and boarded a plane to the island."To leave our routine life in New York for the tropics and a revolution--I didn't even think twice about it," said Roberto Salas, now 59. "For me it was a super adventure--especially at that age. And that super adventure turned into where I ended up living the rest of my life."Salas, his father and a select group of photographers captured the turmoil and victory of young Castro and his crew of barbudos (bear... read more

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