Tag:spanish civil war
David Seymour (Chim) was a Polish-born American photojournalist and co-founder of Magnum. Seymour is best known for his empathic and moving images of people, especially children, and for his work covering the Second World War and other conflicts. He also photographed celebrities, politicians, and socialites working for magazines such as Life, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar. Seymour believed the medium of photography could awaken the public conscience and used his skill to tell stories photographically.
We are only trying to tell a story. Let the 17th-century painters worry about the effects. We’ve got to tell it now, let the news in, show the hungry face, the broken land, anything so that those who are comfortable may be moved a little
David Seymour (Chim)
Early Life
He was born Dawid (Chim) Szymin on November 20, 1911, in Poland to Polish Jewish parents Regina and Benjamin Szymin. His parents were prominent Yiddish and Hebrew book publishers and owners of a bookstore that was a gathering point for Warsaws Jewish intellectuals. Chim was a talented pianist and linguist, fluent in eight languages and studied graphic arts and printing technology in Leipzig. However, with the increasing political and economic unrest at home, he decided to continue his studies in Paris. While studying at Sorbonne University in 1932, he developed an interest in photography.
By 1934 he abbreviated his surname and began stamping his prints ‘Chim’ (pronounced shim) as it was easier to pronounce and more “commercial”. He became friends with Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Besson while they were all working at the RAP picture agency. All three shared an apartment in Paris for a time, and their bathroom doubled as a darkroom.
In the late 1930s, Chim covered the Spanish Civil War. His images gained widespread attention, particularly those that portrayed life behind the lines and the impact of the war on the people of Barcelona, and they were published in Life magazine. In addition, the new French weekly Match assigned Chim and writer George Soria to photograph the defeated Republicans fleeing Spain for France. He also covered the SS Sinaia voyage in 1939, the first ship to carry Spanish refugees to Mexico.
The War Years
In 1939 while he was covering the Spanish civil war, Chim realised it wasn’t safe to return home, so he emigrated to the United States. In 1942, he was drafted, and while training in military intelligence as a photo interpreter at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he became a naturalised U.S. citizen. During his service, he received a bronze star and was discharged with the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1945
In 1947, Chim, Capa, Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert founded Magnum Photos, the international photographers’ cooperative agency. Magnum was formed to give photographers control over their own assignments and retain copyrights over their own negatives.
Children of Europe
Chim was designated a ‘special consultant’ by UNICEF in March 1948 and was assigned to document the plight of the child survivors of World War II. That year, while on assignment for the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), Chim photographed the children orphaned by the war and irrevocably physically and emotionally damaged.
The assignment would take him to five countries. His visit to a school in Warsaw for disturbed children saw him create one of his most famous images. Tereska’s ‘drawing’ on a blackboard of her’ home’ is a nebulous, incomprehensible scribble, indicating her deep trauma. He later turned the images into the critically acclaimed book Children of Europe (1949). While still on assignment with UNESCO, Chim learned his parents, who had remained behind in Poland during the war, were killed by the Nazis when they liquidated the Otwock Ghetto and sent the inhabitants to Treblinka. The Children of Europe series reflected his raw emotions.
David Seymour (Chim), © David Seymour Estate
Post War
In 1949, Chim moved to Rome. Working on a book on the Vatican, he took over 2,500 photographs, photographing everyone, from workers to the pope during a private audience. Then, in 1951, Robert Capa came up with a large-scale idea – to be handled entirely by Magnum photographers. ‘Generation X’ was about children coming of age after the war. Chim, still in Italy, chose two subjects and, from 1951 to 1955, he photographed traditional religious festivals and processions held in Italian villages. He also made several trips to Israel as the fledgling state was fighting against attacks from neighbouring Arab states. Israel had become extremely important to him, symbolically and emotionally. He saw it as a place of hope for the Jews of Europe.
The 1950s
In 1954 Magnum lost two of its top photographers. Werner Bischof died in a car accident in Peru on May 16, and just nine days later, on May 25, Robert Capa, Magnums president, was killed in Vietnam when he stepped on a landmine.
“My Dear Magnum family, the lump is still in the throat, and the dust not settled yet. The blow is hard, and the reaction slow to come… We have to go on, keep together, and avoid the stunning effects of our sorrow. Maybe through this we will help ourselves, and find strength to keep and develop Magnum—a home for all of us.”
David Seymour
Following Capa’s death, Chim took over the role of President at Magnum. He was also a gifted portrait artist. From 1955-1956, he was the trusted portrait artist of Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini and family, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Collins, Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, Kirk Douglas, Gina Lollobrigida, Rita Hayworth, Irene Papas, Maria Callas, and many others. In addition, he took portraits of writers and intellectuals like Arturo Toscanini and Bernard Berenson.
Death
On November 10, 1956, Chim covered the Suez Crisis for Newsweek. He and French photographer Jean Roy were driving to photograph an exchange of wounded soldiers at El Quantara. Tragically they were killed by Egyptian machinegun fire. It was four days after the armistice of the 1956 Suez Crisis, ten days before his 45th birthday.
Gerda Taro was a German-born war photographer best known for her coverage of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Born Gerta Pohorylle in Stuttgart, Germany, she was professionally known as Gerda Taro. She was one of the first female war photographers and is considered a pioneer in the field. Unfortunately, she was also the first woman war photographer to die in the field.
Early Life
Pohorylle was born to a middle-class Jewish family on August 1st, 1910. In 1929, with her father’s business failing due to economic conditions in Germany, the family moved to Leipzig, seeking a fresh start.
As Germany descended further into economic and political chaos, antisemitism intensified. In 1933 she was arrested after distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. At age 23, to escape Hitler’s Germany and the persecution of the Jews, she fled to France, joining the thousands of political and intellectual exiles also seeking refuge in the country. Her parents also left for Palestine, and her brothers went to England. She never saw her family again.
Inventing Robert Capa
In Paris, Pohorylle met Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian jew and became his assistant. Friedmann taught her photography, and they fell in love. In 1936 they invented the pseudonym Robert Capa for Friedman, and Friedmann claimed to be his agent. Both Friedman and Pohorylle took news photographs and sold them as the work of the non-existent American photographer Robert Capa. The ruse was a way of overcoming the rising antisemitism in Europe and breaking into the lucrative American market with a more commercial name.
The name Capa came from Friedmann’s Budapest street nickname “Cápa”, which means “Shark” in Hungarian. However, their secret did not last long, and Friedmann then officially adopted the more commercial name “Capa” as his own. Meanwhile, Pohorylle took the name Gerda Taro. Her name came from avant-garde Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto and Swedish actress Greta Garbo. Robert Capa and Gerda Taro worked together as photojournalists to cover the events surrounding the coming-to-power of the Popular Front in 1930s France.
Spanish Civil War
Just two weeks after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, the couple moved to Barcelona, arriving in Barcelona on August 5th 1936. Over the next twelve months, Taro photographed the civilian population’s suffering and soldiers on the frontline. In February 1937, Taro and Capa travelled to the Andalusian coast and the city of Malaga, covering the thousands of civilians fleeing a nationalist advance. In May, she photographed the civilian population after they had endured the nightly bombing of Valencia.
Battle of Brunette
The battle of Brunete was pivotal for the Spanish civil war. General Franco’s forces had retaken the town, and the republican troops were retreating. General Walters warned Taro to get out of Brunette as her safety could not be guaranteed. However, Taro refused to leave and continued shooting. as bombs fell and planes strafed the ground. Witnesses said she was smiling and taking photo after photo, which she said were her “best pictures yet”.
Running out of film, she hopped onto the running board of General Walters’ car carrying wounded soldiers. Unfortunately, an out of control tank crashed into the side of the car and crushed her abdomen. Nevertheless, she was still conscious when she arrived at the British hospital in El Escorial. New Zealand surgeon Dr Douglas Jolly operated on her. However, she passed away that night.
Epilogue
Gerda Taro had been due to return to France the next day. Unfortunately, her photographs of the battle and equipment disappeared soon after the collision with the tank. Taro was considered a martyr to the anti-fascist movement, and the French communist party provided her with a magnificent funeral that drew thousands of people; she was laid to rest at Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris on what would have been her 27th birthday.
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.
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.
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.
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~
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.
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.”
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.
(Credits: 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.
© Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
WWII Aftermath
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.
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 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.