Fine Art Photography
Series
Robert Capa
Biography of Hungarian War Photographer.
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Fine Art Photography
Series
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Robert Capa (1913-54)Contents • Robert Capa's War
Photography For a short explanation of how photographic technology evolved, please see the History of Photography (c.1800-1900). For details about the early pioneers, see 19th-Century Photographers. |
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CAMERA ART GLOSSARY |
The finest wartime photojournalist and one of the greatest photographers of the mid-20th century, Robert Capa achieved international fame at the age of 23, for his (now controversial) Spanish Civil War photograph entitled Death of a Loyalist Militiaman (1936, International Center of Photography, New York). Later, with his familiar Rollieflex camera, he parachuted into Sicily with American paratroopers, was in Normandy on D-Day - where he shot his iconic photo American Soldiers Landing on Omaha Beach, D-Day, Normandy (1944, silver print, ICP, New York) - and later photographed the liberation of Paris as well as the surrender of Berlin. In 1947, together with David Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert, he co-founded Magnum Photos - the first cooperative agency for international freelance photographers. In 1948, he reported the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and finally the war in Indo-China, where he was killed by a mine. He remains the most famous war reporter in the world, possessed of that unique ability to produce documentary photography that captures the horror and tragedy of war in a specific moment. He remains one of the great modern artists and a master of photojournalism. Other leading 20th century practitioners of documentary photography during times of conflict include: Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), Larry Burrows (1926-71), Don McCullin (b.1935), James Nachtwey (b.1948) and Steve McCurry (b.1950).
Biography 1932-1933, lab technician at the Dephot agency. End of 1932, candid photos of exiled Bolshevik Leon Trotsky agitating (in Copenhagen) taken with his Leica becomes the subject of his first major publication (in Weltspiegel). 1933, moves to Paris via Vienna. Meets Sigmund Freund, Hans Namuth (1915-90), David Szymin (David Seymour) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004). 1934, meets Gerda Pohorylle, a German Jewish refugee, in Paris. He teaches her photography. While she takes the name Gerda Taro, he eventually adopts the name "Robert Capa". Works for Alliance photo. Publishes under the name "Andre Friedman", and "Capa". From 1936, reports on the Spanish Civil War for VU and Regards. On 23 September 1936 his best-known photo: Death of a Loyalist Soldier. 1937, Gerda Taro is killed during fighting in Spain. Capa, reportedly engaged to her, is profoundly shocked and never marries. (See also the work of Capa's older contemporary Dorothea Lange: 1895-1965.) 1938, he travels to Hankow, now Wuhan, in China to photograph local resistance to the Japanese invasion. 1939, moves to the USA. Works for Collier's Weekly and Life. At first focuses on American themes. Later produces acclaimed photojournalism from war zones in Europe (including D-Day 1944). End of 1944, becomes Paris correspondent for Life. 1947 becomes founding member of Magnum. Publishes his photobook Slightly Out of Focus (1947, Henry Holt & Co, New York). In the same year, with John Steinbeck in the Soviet Union (A Russian Journal), where he takes photos in Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, and Stalingrad. 1948, first trip to Israel. 1951, becomes President of Magnum. 1954, (replacing the Life photographer Howard Sochurek) goes to Vietnam. There killed by a landmine. End of 2007, spectacular rediscovery of a case with around 3,500 negatives (photos by C. Taro and David Szymin) from the Spanish Civil War period. Today in the International Center of Photography, New York, a museum founded by Capa's younger brother Cornell.
Unless stated all shows are solo events. 1955 New York (The Family of Man) group
show Photographs by Robert Capa are regularly exhibited in some of the best galleries of contemporary art across America. |
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Profiles of Other Famous Camera Artists In addition to the photographers mentioned above, here is a short list of the best known camera artists of the 20th century. • Eugene
Atget (1857-1927) Famous for Paris street scenes |
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• For more about war photography,
see: Homepage.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ART |
