Image Bank Assignment

Robert Capa collection by Magnum Photos

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R14YQNW&nm=Robert%20Capa

Robert Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in 1947. The Magnum Photos website now hosts a large collection of his photos, making for an ideal image bank, even if they are heavily watermarked.

 BIO

Robert Capa was born Andre Friedmann in Budapest in 1913. He studied political science in Berlin, but at the age of 18 was driven out of the country by the threat of a Nazi regime and settled in Paris in 1933. Here he took to photography and soon found himself on assignment. He also met journalist, photographer, and eventual lover Gerda Taro. Together, they invented the persona of the 'famous' American photographer Robert Capa in order to sell prints of their photographs.

In 1936, Capa was sent by Vue magazine to cover the bloody Spanish Civil War and appeared regularly in its publication. His picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded, titled “Death of a Loyalist Militiaman,” earned him an international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war. It’s considered his most famous photo.

While in Spain, his love Taro was killed by an out-of-control Loyalist tank. Her tragic death ended her photographic career and left a deep scar on Capa's personality. 

As a correspondent in Europe, Capa photographed the second World War, covering the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. He received the Medal of Freedom Citation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His photographs of the D-Day landing are classics; he became known as the quintessential war photographer, though he captured subjects other than war with his camera, including portraits.

In 1947, with friends and fellow photographers, Capa began a picture agency named Magnum. He spent the next few years making Magnum into a successful cooperative, and photographing good times with his artist friends, including Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.

On May 25th, 1954, Capa was on assignment for Life magazine in Thai-Binh, Indochina, when he stepped on a landmine and was killed. He was the first American correspondent to die in Indochina.

"Death of a Loyalist Militiaman" by Capa, Spain --- 1936

I chose Robert Capa as my photographer for the fact that I'm more familiar with his work than any other photographer. I did a project on Capa's photos just a few semesters back in a course at Union County College and just like I was then, I am impressed with his work. The man had a great eye, and his wartime photographs are some of the best I've ever seen.

CAPA portrait by LIFE magazine, Germany (cropped version) --- 1945