Robert Capa - Masterworks

I doubt many caught this since it was on TV Ontario, but they aired an

excellent 90 min documentary on Robert Capa in the Masterworks series

last night.

 

Lots of shots of him (and his Magnum friends) with the prewar Contax

II slug around his neck, also various Rolleiflex TLRs, Leicas, movie

cameras, etc. And of course some of the incredible photos he made

including the only 11 of 130 Omaha Beach exposures that didn't get

ruined by a lab assistant. Its really sad that this man met his end

on a landmine in Vietnam in 1954. At least he died pursuing his passion.

 

Words from the man himself: "If your pictures aren`t good enough, you

aren't close enough."<div></div>

I bought a friend Capa's Definitive Collection fairly recently, then liked it so

much I had to buy it for myself. It's superb. However, the best overall book on

Capa has to be 'Slightly Out Of Focus', his terrific autobiography covering the

WWII period. It's been reissued recently, and costs peanuts from Amazon - I

would really recommend it. <p>

It has the story of the Omaha photos ("I took out my second Contax and began

to shoot without raising my head"), it has the story of his unrequited love

affair (don't feel too sorry, he did subsequently shack up with Ingrid Bergman)

but most of all it's a very evocative, entrancing story of a man with an

admirable lust for life and an enviable capacity for alcohol. Oh, and anyone in

London, his local was The French House on Dean St.

The portrait of Robert Capa posted here was taken by Ruth Orkin. <p>

 

Don't ever forget any pictures author, even if the subject is a photographer himself !<p>

 

BTW the actual name of this Hungarian wonderful personality was Andre Friedman. <p>

 

Regarding the lab assistant who ruined the Omaha Beach pictures, Robert Capa finally exerced his famous sense of humour by titling one of his further books <i>Slightly out of focus</i>.

My bad. I think Ruth Orkin was in the documentary as well.

 

Even his brother goes my "Capa" now.

Hm, Nicolas, that's strange - since Robert Capa sounds as a valid hungarian name (capa meaning shark in fact), while Andre Friedman absolutely not. Should be Andras, ahd Friedman sounds very jewish. Hey...maybe he WAS a jew. Was he?

 

(Sorry it seems i'm terribly uneducated)

Yes, Andre Friedman was Jewish. Brief bio <A href="http://tinyurl.com/9zxmn">here</A>

I also have the Definitive Collection book. What struck me upon seeing the range of Capa's work was that he wasn't just a great photojournalist/war photographer (the way he's usually remembered), he was a great photgrapher, period.

Definitely a great outside of war too. I think he was a master of being a fly on the wall. People knew that he was there yet he somehow managed to melt away and capture the real scene.

 

E.g. the Picasso family photos and the Blitz photos where he shadowed a family living in London.

Friedman changed hos nameto Robert Capa so editors would think he was a bigtime

American photographer and would let him charge more for his work. He chosethe name

Robert Capa becasue it sounded like Frank Capra, though no doubt he also no doubt

knew the Czech meaning of the name).

 

Cornell Capa , when he escaped from Europe , sensibly chose to call himself Capa as well

since his brother was already famous.

 

They are both no doubt completely Jewish. Capa was an ardent supporter of the state of

Israel when it had few friends. This bias caused a rift between him and another founding

memeber of the Magnum Photo Agency who was more sympathetic to the Arab world (not

anti- Isaeli but was sympathetic to the factthat the Arabs were being ripped off left right

and center by British and French colonialism, and before that by the Turks.

 

At the time of his death Capa was sick of covering wars and thought print photo-

journalism was already dying if not yet dead. You can find his very last work in the great

book of work done by photographers who were killed in the colonial wars in Vietnam,

"Requiem".

And of course there are Hungarian Jews or Jewish Hungarians - which ever way you want

to phrase it, Robert Capa was Hungarian and he was jewish.

Actually, the story of how Robert Capa came to be is even odder than Ellis's explanation. Andre and his girl friend Gerda Taro (whose real name was Gerda Pohorylles) were struggling to make a living in Paris after escaping the Nazis.

 

Editors weren't too interested in the work of a pair of unknown photographers so someone, Friedman always insisted it was Taro, came up with the idea of inventing a 'famous' American photojournalist who was visiting Europe. Taro would pose as the great man's secretary and sell the pictures. Thus Robert Capa was born and, originally, he was nothing more than a vehicle for selling pictures taken by both Taro and Friedman. It was only when editors began to insist on meeting the elusive Capa that Friedman took on the mantle.

 

After a while, 'Robert Capa' really was famous and Friedman was stuck with him. There's always been speculation that Friedman continued using the name in memory of Gerda Taro, who was killed while covering the Spanish Civil War with him.

Anyone notice how <i>cool</i> those guys looked? Sure, Capa was a very handsome man, but all the Magnum guys-with their loose workshirts, hats,dangling cigarretes, multiple Contaxes, Leicas and Rolleis hanging on them, in black and white of course--flying from Paris to all points of the world, business meetings in cafes and bars, meeting exotic and accomplished women....I wonder if those images are what you'd find if you could lift the wigs of Leica Forum members to read their subconscious?