The Deena Stryker Photographs collection spans the dates 1963-1964 and contains photographs and related material from Stryker's time in Cuba as a journalist for Paris Match. During her stay, she interviewed and photographed Fidel and Raúl Castro as well as other male and female leaders in the Cuban Revolution, including Ernesto "Ché" Guevara, Juan Almeida, Luis Crespo, Armando Acosta, Armando Hart Dávalos, Efigenio Ameijeiras Delgado, Faustino Pérez, Manuel Fajardo Sotomayor, César Escalante, Jesus Montane, Antonio Núñez Jímenez, Guillermo García Frías, Celia Sánchez, Ramiro Valdes Menendez, and René Vallejo.
The Photographic Materials Series contains Stryker's contact sheets, prints, and negatives created during the one-year period; all the photographic material processed by Alberto Korda, Fidel Castro's personal photographer. Topics and photographic subjects include key members of the revolutionary government, male and female, at work and relaxing with family members; life in Havana, including neighborhood and street scenes, and post-revolution housing projects; political rallies and meetings; and daily life and work in rural Cuba, particularly farms, agricultural workers, development projects, and schools. There are also images of Afro Cubans, religious life, and photos of major events such as the Havana trial of accused Batista collaborator Marcos Alfonso in March 1964, and the capture of Cuban fishing vessels by the U.S. Coast Guard in Feb. 1964.
The Correspondence Series contains letters of introduction to Fidel Castro from Stryker as well as one written by Sánchez and a diagram drawn by Raúl Castro. Stryker's analysis of the complexities of nascent post-revolution Cuba is captured in an Italian manuscript draft of the book she prepared for publication in Italy, housed in the Manuscript Materials Series.
An addition to the collection consists of prints produced from the original negatives by documentary photographer Cedric Chatterley for a 2010 exhibit on Deena Stryker's work, with a few other prints used in the exhibit created by Alberto Korda in the 1960s.
All of Stryker's negatives have been digitized and these images are available in their digital form. There are some prints and contact sheet images not represented digitally. Digital images and captions created by the photographer have been transferred to a library server.
Acquired by the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
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