The photographer that documented wars around the world

            Since the American Civil War in the 1860s there have been photographers on the frontlines of every war that the United States has partaken in. Along with journalists, these men and women literally live and die with the soldiers as they do battle with the enemy. They understand what the soldiers are going through so they are able to capture the moment through writing, videos and pictures. World War II was a prime example of the work they do as was evident in the famous photo taken by Joe Rosenthal (who was Jewish) depicting six marines raising the American flag on the pacific island of Iwo Jima. Another photographer who captured the most famous invasion in history was Robert Capa.

            He was born Endre Erno Friedmann in Budapest in 1913 and at the age of 18 moved to Berlin where he learned professional photography. After the rise of the Nazi party he moved to Paris in 1933. He found that if he changed his name, it would be easier for him to get a job and sell his photos so he adopted the American sounding name of Robert Capa.

In Copenhagen, Denmark in 1932, Capa was assigned to photograph Leon Trotsky giving a speech on the Russian Revolution.  These amazing photos made him famous and he was sent to photograph other historical events. The first war that he photo-documented was the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). On September 5, 1936, he took the photo entitled “The Falling Soldier” depicting a loyalist militiaman after being shot at Cerro Muriano. The picture was later determined to have been staged but it gave Capa the worldwide exposure (no pun intended) that made him famous. During the rise of the Nazi regime in Europe, Capa fled and during his travels many photographs that he took during this war were lost. However, several were found during the 1990s and Capa was given credit when they were displayed in a museum in Manhattan.

Before the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, there were several battles that took place and were finally settled during the war. One of these was the war between Japan and China, with Japan mauling the Chinese interior and killing millions of innocent civilians. There was one victory for the Chinese and that was at Taierchwang in 1938. Capa was there on a break from the Spanish Civil War and he took some memorable pictures of the battle. After that he returned to Spain before he had to flee Europe entirely to avoid capture by the Nazis.

Technically an illegal alien in New York City when World War II broke out, he was given a job with Collier Magazine as a photographer. He landed with the troops in North Africa before being fired by Collier’s. Recognizing that an amazing photographer was available, Life Magazine hired him and in 1943 he jumped with paratroopers from the 82^nd Airborne Division into Sicily as a part of Operation Husky. The pictures that he took in Sicily depicted the typical reactions of the local populace: the elation after Allied troops had liberated their country and the suffering they had endured while under German rule.

As the Allies advanced into Italy and into “the soft underbelly of the Axis” as British Prime Minister put it, so did Capa. He took pictures of the cities and was in Naples to take pictures of a post office being bombed. In 1944, he returned to England to prepare for the greatest seaborne invasion of the war (and according to many historians, the largest in history).

Robert Capa was always known for his daring and fearlessness in battle even though he was powerless to fight back and was only armed with a 35mm camera. One time he was with beloved writer Ernie Pyle, who was killed later in the war by a sniper on Japanese held island, and was invited to come along to see and photograph an assault on German positions. Pyle writes in his book Brave Men about the incident, “Capa was notorious for his daring”. That’s exactly what made his pictures so amazing; the fact that he was able to get so close to the action without the fear of being wounded or killed. He proved this when he waded ashore with members of the US infantry on the “Easy Red” part of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on D-Day June 6, 1944. He took 106 pictures of the landings, but due to the eagerness of the photo lab technician back in England most of the pictures were damaged. However, eleven pictures were developed properly and these became known as the :magnificent eleven”. They depicted soldiers coming ashore and accurately told the story of the historic landings to the people back home.

Capa described his feelings coming ashore with the second wave of infantry troops on D-Day. “My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return. The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion. The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear. The water was cold, and the beach still more than a hundred yards away. The bullets tore holes in the water around me, and I made for the nearest steel obstacle. A soldier got there at the same time, and for a few minutes we shared its cover. He took the waterproofing off his rifle and began to shoot without much aiming at the smoke-hidden beach. The sound of his rifle gave him enough courage to move forward, and he left the obstacle to me. It was a foot larger now, and I felt safe enough to take pictures of the other guys hiding just like I was.”

After the war, he went on tour in Soviet Russia with author John Steinbeck and took pictures in Moscow, Kiev and the battle ruins of Stalingrad. In 1947, he cofounded Magnum Photos- an international cooperation that is still around today.

The founding of the State of Israel stirred the Jewish spark in Capa and in 1948 he traveled to Israel to photo document the War of Independence. He took pictures of General Mickey Marcus and the building of the Burma Road to Jerusalem. His work appeared in the United States and the New York Times wrote about him, “Warm and perceptive, Capa's camera has ranged over the faces of land and people, seeking the human qualities as well as historic milestones.” He returned to Israel in 1950 to make a film on recently arrived immigrants.

While in Japan on exhibition put on by Magnum Photos, Life Magazine asked him to go to Southeast Asia to photograph the First Indochina War (before the Americans were involved in Vietnam, the French had been there fighting the communists since the end of World War II). Despite his misgivings about photographing more war and destruction, he agreed. On May 25, 1954 he went ahead of his convoy near Thai Binh, Vietnam to photograph the advance. About five minutes later, two other journalists from Life Magazine heard an explosion and went to investigate. Capa had stepped on a landmine and by the time he reached a field hospital it was too late. He died with a camera in his hand.

In his memory the Overseas Press Club established the Robert Capa Award “for superlative photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad.”

Being a front-line journalist is a very dangerous job and only the bravest and most determined of men decide to on it for a career path. Robert Capa did it not only because photography was his passion but because he wanted to show the world what war was like. He did it magnificently even though he paid the ultimate price. His life’s work still remains today as we all have reminder how brutal war is and how soldiers serve bravely on the battlefield. The photos are frozen in time as it transforms the viewer into the moment that he took the picture.