Robert Capa: 1913 – 54 Spanish Loyalist

Robert Capa: 1913 – 54 1913: Born Endre Ernö Friedmann in Hungary. 1931: Moves to Berlin and studies Political Science at the liberal German College for Politics. 1932: Lab assistant at the Dephot photo agency. First photos published in 1932.

1933: Moves to Paris, associates include Henri Cartier Bresson. 1936: Spanish Civil War photojournalism for Vu and Regards. 1938: War correspondent in China.

1939: Moves to USA and works for Life and Colliers. His work covering the European theatre of war is highly acclaimed. 1947: Founder member of the photo agency Magnum.

1954:. Dies on May 25th photographing 1954: Dies on May 25th photographing for "Life" in Thai-Binh, Indochina when he stepped on a land mine. The French Army awarded him the War Cross with Palm after his death. The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award was established in 1955 to reward exceptional professional merit.

Capa’s most famous (and controversial image) is that of the death of the Spanish Loyalist.

Although it was his war images which made him famous Capa was more than a war photographer. His estate comprised of more than 70,000 negatives; although that of his most famous picture is officially lost. Capa was 22 when he took the image of the moment of death of Federico Borrell Garcίa. Garcίa was 24 and died on 5 September 1936 on the Cordoba front.

“the most exciting and immediate shot “the most exciting and immediate shot of battle action2 (Richard Wheeler) “the greatest war photograph ever taken” (Russell Miller) “a symbol of the Spanish Civil War and later the ultimate image of the anti-war movement” (Stern Magazine)

“the most legendary and most. published war picture in history” “the most legendary and most published war picture in history” (Ranier Fabian,1983) “the first compelling shot taken during war time” (Carol Squires, 1998)

Advances in printing techniques, new forms of distribution and layouts allowed for the improved reproduction of images. Advancements is technology also gave photographers a new generation of cameras which were less clumsy and faster than their predecessors, (Capa used a Leica for this image).

The Picture Post devotes all of its pages to Capa’s civil war photographs in December 1938 and declares him to be the greatest war photographer in the world. The Spanish Loyalist first appears in Vu, No. 447, 23rd September 1936. The images is then published in Life, 12th July 1937. Capa used it in his own book Death in the Making (New York, 1938), along with other images he and Gerda Taro had taken in Spain.

Capa absolves himself on any duty to provide information on location, time, or circumstances under which the picture was taken. The image began to provoke questions and doubts about its authenticity arise. Questions include:

No evidence of a bullet wound, (the soldier allegedly shot in the head). The soldier is running down hill but is falling backwards. Not wearing appropriate battlefield attire. The positioning of Capa, why was he in front of the soldier, and why was he looking backwards?

Capa claimed that he and the soldier had been left behind and that after many attempts to rejoin his comrades the soldier finally lost patience and he and Capa climbed out the trench. As they advanced the Capa instinctively snapped his camera on hearing a burst of machine gun fire, and fell back beside the soldier. Doubts remained as to whether Capa was alone with the soldier. He has similar image of another soldier hit on the battlefield. There were claims that the soldiers (either Loyalist or Franco’s) often staged images for the press.

An examination of both images, (perspective, cloud formation, ground conditions), would suggest that they were both taken at approximately the same time. Why is there no second body in the most famous image?

Capa’s biographer Richard Whelan who raised many of the doubts took the view that that the picture was “a great and powerful image…. To insist upon knowing whether the photograph actually shows a man at the moment he has been hit by a bullet is both morbid and trivializing, for the pictures greatness ultimately lies in its symbolic implications, not in its literal accuracy as a report on the death of a particular man” (1985)

In 1995 after the publication of the memoirs of a soldier who had fought in the Spanish Civil War, in which he recognised the leather bullet pouches of Garcίa as being specific to the type worn by militiamen from Alcoy, Whelan did further research. A militiaman from Alcoy was reported to have been killed on the Cordoba front on September 5th 1936. Whelan traced his brother and showed him the photograph which he identified as being his brother.

However the debate still continues with claims and counterclaims as to the image’s authenticity. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-capa/in-love-and-war/47/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1201116/How-Capas-camera-does-lie-The-photographic-proof-iconic-Falling-Soldier-image-staged.html

Capa himself once said “No tricks are necessary to take pictures in Spain. You don’t have to pose your camera (i.e., pose your subjects). The pictures are there, you just take them. The truth is the best picture…”