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Robert Capa by Gerda Taro

Robert Capa – Master War Photographer

Robert Capa was born André Friedmann in 1913 to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary.  His images, particularly those he took as a war correspondent, made him one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century.  In 1938, when aged just 25 yrs old, the British magazine Picture Post termed him “the greatest war photographer in the world”, with a spread of 26 images taken by Capa during the Spanish Civil War.

The Early Years

Capa was accused of connections to communists and, in 1930, fled Hungary for Berlin.  There, he enrolled in journalism and political science at Berlin University and worked as a darkroom assistant at Dephot, a German picture agency.

Even as a lowly assistant, his eye for composition became clear to Dephot boss Simon Guttmann and he sent Friedmann to Copenhagen, where the exiled Leon Trotsky was due to speak. Guttmann sent Friedman equipped with a Leica II screw-mount rangefinder to record the event.

Robert Capa's (Friedmans) first Leica.
Robert Capa’s (Friedmans) first Leica.

Press photographers were banned at the Trotsky rally, but the Leica II was a true pocket camera. Hold one today, and it becomes obvious why it was such a game-changer for the photojournalist in potentially dangerous situations. Friedmann could shoot images covertly and return from Copenhagen with photos that affirmed his talent despite his inexperience. His surreptitious, low-angle shot of Trotsky orating at the podium, his hands locked like talons in front of his face to make a point, became iconic.

Leon Trotsky by Robert Capa
Leon Trotsky by Robert Capa
Capa and Taro

Following the rise to power of the Nazis, Jews were prohibited from colleges and universities.  Realising it wasn’t safe, as a jew, to remain in Germany, Capa moved to Paris in 1933.  In Paris, he met a fellow war photographer and Jewish refugee Gerda Pohorylle, who had left Germany for the same reason.   The pair dropped their German-Jewish names and assumed the names Robert Capa and Gerda Taro.  In Paris, they shared a darkroom with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Chim (David Seymour), with Capa regularly working as a photojournalist.

Gerda Taro Image: Fred Stein Archive/Getty)
Gerda Taro Image: Fred Stein Archive/Getty)
The Spanish Civil War

Between 1936 and 1939, Capa made multiple trips to Spain accompanied by Taro to document the Spanish Civil War. During this period, he achieved fame as a war correspondent, with his most famous image, Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936), stemming from these trips.  The photos were lauded for their grim realism and gave rise to Capa’s most famous quote. 

If your pictures aren’t good enough, then you aren’t close enough.

~Robert Capa~
The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa Gilman Collection, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2005
The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa Gilman Collection, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2005
Doubts of Authenticity

Over three-quarters of a century later, Capa’s Falling Soldier is still regarded as one of the most famous images ever of combat.  The image is also one of the most debated, with many critics claiming it was staged, a practice not uncommon at the time. However, whether this particular image was staged is still unknown.

1939 -Group of Refugees Marching on Dirt Road by Robert Capa
FRANCE. Le Barcarès. March 1939.
Exiled Republicans being transferred from one part of a concentration camp for Spanish refugees to another. by Robert Capa

During a battle in Madrid, an out-of-control tank crashed into the car carrying Taro, mortally wounding her. She was 26 years old. Capa never got over her death, and he vowed never to marry. Nevertheless, in 1938 Capa went to Hankow (now known as Wuhan) to photograph the Chinese resistance against the Japanese invasion.

World War II

With World War II (WWII) outbreak, Capa again had to move to avoid Nazi persecution. This time, moving to America and as a freelance photographer for LIFE, Time, and other publications.  From 1941 to 1946, Capa worked as a war correspondent, travelling with the U.S. Army; he documented the heavy fighting and subsequent Allied victories in North Africa, Europe, and D-Day in Normandy.

Omaha Beach

Capa was the only photojournalist who landed with the allies at Omaha Beach, Normandy, on D-day. While he was only on the beach for ninety minutes, Capa’s images (taken on Contax Cameras) of the Allied landing became some of the most memorable photos of the war. Once back on the transport ship, he helped load stretchers and photographed the wounded until he collapsed. Capa later woke on a bunk with a piece of paper around his neck: “Exhaustion case. No dog tags.” 

Robert Capa, Omaha Beach, D-Day 6 June 1944, gelatin silver prints. Photo © Christie's
Robert Capa, Omaha Beach, D-Day 6 June 1944, gelatin silver prints. Photo © Christie’s

While under constant fire, Capa took 106 pictures that day. However, only 11 survived after a photo lab accident in London. Those images became known as the Magnificent Eleven.

Leipzig

Following D-day, he went to Leipzig, Germany and photographed the battle for a bridge. One of those images caught Raymond. J. Bowman just moments before being killed by sniper fire.  The pair of infantrymen had set up their 30 calibre Browning machine gun on an open balcony to provide cover for the American troops of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division, advancing over a bridge. This balcony had an unobstructed view of the bridge. However, it also gave a clear view of snipers. The image was later published in Life magazine.

Minutes before his death, Raymond J. Bowman (seen left now) with fellow U.S. soldier Lehmann Riggs (on the right). (Credits: Robert Capa, International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos)
Minutes before his death, Raymond J. Bowman (seen left now) with fellow U.S. soldier Lehmann Riggs (on the right).
(Credits: Robert Capa, International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos)
Capa’s picture of the American soldier killed by a German sniper on 18 April 1945. Photograph: Robert Capa © International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos
Capa’s picture of the American soldier killed by a German sniper on 18 April 1945. Photograph: Robert Capa © International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos

In 2015, the City of Leipzig voted to name the street in which the apartment building is located “Bowmanstraße” in honour of Raymond J. Bowman. As a result, the apartment building is now called Capa House and contains a small memorial with Capa’s photographs and information about Bowman.

Liberation of Italy

In August 1943, he accompanied American troops to Sicily. While there, he documented the suffering of the Sicilians under the constant bombing by Germany. His photographs also depicted their happiness at the arrival of the American soldiers. Capa’s image of a Sicilian peasant indicating the direction in which German troops had gone became famous worldwide and a symbol of the liberation of Italy from the Nazis.

ITALY. Near Troina. August 4-5, 1943. Sicilian peasant telling an American officer which way the Germans had gone.  © Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
ITALY. Near Troina. August 4-5, 1943. Sicilian peasant telling an American officer which way the Germans had gone. 
© Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
WWII Aftermath
A Parisian harassing a captured German soldier. (Robert Capa/International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos)
A Parisian harassing a captured German soldier. (Robert Capa/International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos)

In 1947 Capa travelled to the Soviet Union with his writer friend John Steinbeck, and they collaborated on the book “A Russian Journal”. Capa took photos of war-torn Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and the ruins of Stalingrad, with Steinbeck providing the text. President Dwight  D. Eisenhower awarded him the Congressional Medal of Freedom for his WWII and day images. Additionally, Hungary released a gold coin and a stamp of Capa in his honour. From 1948-1950, he photographed the turmoil following Israel’s declaration of independence.

Robert Capa, 1954, Tokyo. Jun Miki took the photograph just days before his death. courtesy Wikipedia Commons
Robert Capa, 1954, Tokyo. Jun Miki took the photograph just days before his death.
courtesy Wikipedia Commons
Untimely End

In 1954 he went to Hanoi to photograph the French war in Indochina for LIFE. Sadly, Capa was killed shortly after his arrival.  While accompanying a french unit, he got out of the jeep to get better photographs and stepped on a landmine. One camera was flung away by the force of the blast. Mortally wounded, with the other camera still in his hand, he was declared dead at the hospital. He became the first American war correspondent killed in the Vietnam conflict. Capa was just 40 yrs old. He had photographed five wars and the official founding of Israel.

Robert Capa’s Grave at Amawalk Hill Cemetery, Westchester county, New York, U.S.A

Robert Capa is considered the 20th-century’s best photojournalist/war photographer. The French army posthumously awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palm.  In 1955 the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award was established to reward the “best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise”.  The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum inducted Capa in 1976.

© Bevlea Ross