Robert Capa is widely known for his D-day photo series of the Omaha Beach or the picture of the Falling Soldier in the Spanish Civil War. But do we know how he managed to be one of the most famous war correspondents of the twentieth century? Which events and coincidences formed his career? Can we reveal his personality through his pictures?
This year’s centennial exhibition in the Hungarian National Museum tries to find answers to these questions. Since 2008, when the museum acquired one of the three Master Selections of Capa’s photos, there had already been a retrospective exhibition of the works in the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art. On the occasion of the centenary of Capa’s birth, the curators of the Hungarian National Museum wanted to present the collection in a thematic way. Four rooms with four titles, each identifying Capa with an interesting label: the Emigrant, the Reporter, the Gambler and the Hero. However, the interpretation is more implicit than explicit; the visitor is mostly left alone with the photos to figure out the answers him/herself. One can wonder whether the pictures really speak about the photographer. On the one hand, yes, one can follow his life according to the places he visited, the people he met and the events he participated in. On the other hand, the images are not enough to get closer to the photographer himself. Unfortunately, the information on Capa’s incredible life and the context of the photos are sometimes hidden in the exhibition. Here is some useful background information to understand who this adventurous guy behind the camera was.
 |
At a horse-race in Deauville, France, 1951. Robert Capa © International Center of Photography, New York/ Hungarian National Museum, Budapest |
Endre Friedmann was born in Budapest, 1913. As an 18-year-old, he went to Berlin to study journalism. Originally, he wanted to write, but the next year his first photo report was published in Weltspiegel, covering Lev Trotsky’s speech in Copenhagen. One photo from this series is presented in the exhibition among later pieces of speaking politicians. Capa is not famous for his portraits; however, these few examples clearly show his talent in catching a person’s characteristics. In 1933, fleeing from the Nazis, Friedmann settled in Paris and fell in love with Gerta Pohorylle – this is where his adventures really began. They found that their names were too complicated and sounded too trivial. She became Gerda Taro, after the first name of a Japanese artist, and he became Robert Capa - a name which sounded very American, consequently a very trendy practice in Paris between the two World Wars. Endre and Gerta figured out that they could sell their photos much better if they pretended to be the assistants of the “famous” Capa and Taro. They went together to cover the Spanish Civil War, and made their first masterpieces on the frontline. The first important relationship and the first big job: two experiences which determined Capa’s life and early career.
Capa was on the frontline of five different wars of the century as a correspondent photographer: the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Second World War, the Arab-Israeli Conflict in 1948, and the First Indochinese War in 1954. In the first one, he lost his lover in a tragic accident: a Republican tank collided into the car in which Gerda Taro was travelling. In the fifth one, Capa, searching for a better photographic viewpoint, stepped on a landmine and lost his life. These are the milestones of an intense and short career.
 |
Image: lvnte.blog.hu |
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you weren’t close enough.” He believed that getting dangerously close to events and to those making the war was the only effective way to show human suffering and the horrible destruction. This is probably the most interesting topic of the exhibition - how the circumstances and Capa’s own motivation led to these ideas. Firstly, technical development (the small size of the new Leica machines) allowed the photographer to go among the people, be in the middle of the action. Secondly, the new genre of the photo-essay became incredibly popular in American and Western-European press. In the exhibition, there are huge cases with newspapers in which one can observe the original context of the photo reports. I found this kind of installation, where the original source of publication is presented beside the classically enlarged pictures, really exciting. After all, Capa’s photos were not made primarily for museums – but for the everyday newspaper-reader.
Alexandra Kocsis, Hungary, Medieval Studies
0 comments:
Post a Comment