Biography of Robert Capa
Seize the moment
October 22, 1913May 25, 1954
Endre Friedman (Robert Capa's real name) was born in Budapest on October 22, 1913. Exiled from Hungary in 1931 for having participated in student activities of the left, he moved to Berlin where he enrolled in the autumn, the journalism class of the Deutsche Hochschule fur Politik. At the end of the year acknowledges that the task of tailoring of the parents goes bad and you can no longer receive money for studies, food and accommodation.
A Hungarian acquaintance helps him to find a job of Bellman and laboratory assistant at Dephot, a leading photo agency in Berlin. The Director, Simon Guttam, he soon discovers his talent and begins to give him small shoots on the local news. Gets the first important assignment in December when Guttam sends him to Copenhagen to photograph a lesson in Lev Trotsky to Danish students. In 1933, when Hitler's rise to power, however, escapes from Berlin, shortly after the Reichstag fire on February 27 drama. He went to Vienna, where he obtained permission to return to Budapest, the birthplace.
Here spends the summer and, to survive, still works as a photographer, although his tenure lasted very little. Just facing the winter season and part for Paris, following his instinct Wanderer and restless. In the French city meet Gerda Taro, a German refugee, and falls in love. At that time, is sent to Spain for a series of photo journalistic services on the efforts of Simon Guttmann. It's the year 1936 when, with a fantasy, you invent a fantasy character, posing in all her work as the result of a successful American photographer. It's the same Gerda, in truth, that sells to editors the photographs of Edward under "disguise". Soon the trick is discovered, then changes its name with that of Robert Capa.
Photographing the riots in Paris under the election of leftist coalition known as the popular front. In August he went to Spain with Gerda Taro, to photograph the civil war broke out in July. Make a second trip to Spain in November to photograph the resistance from Madrid. It is present on many fronts Spaniards, alone and with Gerda, become Meanwhile an independent photojournalist. In July of ' 37, while he was in Paris on business, Gerda goes to photograph the battle of Brunete West of Madrid. During a retreat, in the confusion, die crushed by a tank of the Spanish Government. CAPA, who hoped to marry her doesn't abandon its never in pain.
The following year he spent six months in China in the company of the filmmaker Joris Ivens for documenting the resistance against the Japanese invasion but returned to Spain in ' 39, has time to photograph the capitulation of Barcelona. After the end of the Spanish civil war, in March, portrays the soldiers loyalists defeated and exiled in internment camps in France. Perform all services in France, including a long service on the tour of France. After the outbreak of the second world war, in September, embarks for New York where he began producing various services on behalf of "Life". He spent some months in Mexico, then right on behalf of "Life", in order to photograph the presidential campaign and the election. Not happy, crossing the Atlantic with a convoy of American aerial transport in England, making several services on the warfare of the allies in Britain. Meanwhile, the war broke out and Capa, from March to may of ' 43, realize a photo essay on the victories of the allies in North Africa, and in July and August, he photographed the Allied military successes in Sicily.
During the remainder of the year documents the fights in continental Italy, including the liberation of Naples. The events are always turbulent and relentlessly follow one another, requiring its indispensable work of Visual record. In January 1944, for example, participating in the allied landings at Anzio, while on 6 June arrives with the first contingent of American forces at Omaha Beach in Normandy. It's in the wake of American and French troops during the campaign that ended with the liberation of Paris on 25 August. In December, he photographed the battle of the Bulge. Parachuted with troops in the Allied invasion of Germany, photographer at Leipzig, Nuremberg and Berlin. In June he meets Ingrid Bergman to Paris and starts a story that will last two years. Finished the war, became an American citizen. Spending a few months in Hollywood, writing his memoirs of the war (which was intended to fit in a script), preparing to become a producer-director. Finally, he decided that the world of cinema doesn't like and part from Hollywood. At the end of the year, he spent two months in Turkey for the filming of a documentary. In 1947, together with Henri Cartier-Bresson's friends David Seymour (called Chim "), George Rodger and William Vandivert founded the photo agency Magnum cooperative. For a month he travels in the Soviet Union in company of his friend John Steinbeck. Travels in Czechoslovakia and in Budapest, Hungary, Poland and also visiting Czechoslovakia with Theodore h. White. His work is tireless witness of the century: in the two years that vannodal 1948 to 50 makes three trips to Israel. During the first manufactures shoots on the Declaration of independence and subsequent fighting. Over the past two trips instead focuses on the issue of the arrival of the first refugees. Finished "doing his duty", he moved back to Paris, where he became President of Magnum, devoting much time to the work of the Agency, research and promotion of young photographers. Unfortunately, those are also the years of McCarthyism, the witch hunt unleashed in america. Due to false accusations of communism, therefore, the Government of the United States will confiscate the passport for a few months, preventing him from travelling to work.
The same year is suffering from severe back pain that forced him to be hospitalized. In 1954, in April, spending a few months in Japan, hosted by the Publisher Mainichi. Arrive in Hanoi around May 9 as submitted by Life magazine to photograph the French war in Indochina for a month. On 25 may, accompanied by a French military mission from Namdinh at the delta of the Red River. During a stop in the convoy along the way, Capa recedes in a field together with a squad of troops where tramples an anti-man, killed in the process. The year after, "Life" and Overseas Press Club shall establish the annual Robert Capa "for photography of the highest quality backed by exceptional courage and initiative abroad." Twenty years later, spurred in part by a desire to keep alive the work of Robert Capa and other photojournalists, Cornell Capa, Robert's brother and colleague, he founded the International Center for Photography in New York.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.