Robert Capa: The Paris Years 1933-54

by Bernard Lebrun, Michel Lefevre

Robert Capa, the most celebrated photojournalist of the 20th century and a founder of Magnum Photos, used Paris as a global platform for his photog­raphy throughout his career. Robert Capa: The Paris Years 1933–1954 tells Capa’s story by focusing on his Paris studio.
Recently many artifacts have surfaced, including the so-called “Mexican suitcase,” which contained Capa’s Spanish civil war negatives. These newly discovered documents, which were either created in or found in his Paris studio, are featured in the book.
With original textual analysis and both rare and renowned images, Robert Capa offers a newly informed, fresh look into the life of this revered photographer.

Praise for Robert Capa:
"Historians and photographers alike will be rewarded by the authors' excellent blend of narration and academic analysis, coupled with a generous helping of groundbreaking photos, many of which have never been published before." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Genres: Photography, Art and Photography

264 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Capa: The Paris Years 1933 – 1954 by Bernard Lebrun and Michel Lefebvre is an extraordinary book. It’s beautifully printed, as one would expect from Abrams, in large format. Strictly speaking, I wouldn’t call this a biography. It’s better than that. To tackle this book, you really need to be already familiar with the life of Capa. At a minimum I suggest first reading Richard Whelan’s excellent biography along with Capa’s own, Slightly Out of Focus. Lebrun & Lefebvre excel at filling in the gaps of Capa’s life story, accompanied by lavish reproductions of Capa’s periodical work – the work that made him famous and is not readily available elsewhere. L & L also update Capa fans with images from several collections, some massive, that have been unearthed in recent decades; and not just “the Mexican suitcase.”

The text is really a series of short essays or commentaries on events, publications, personalities, relationships (especially Gerda, HCB, & Chim), controversies, and locales associated with Capa. But the real value of the book is the abundant reproductions of those early photo stories where it is easy to see how Capa became “the greatest war photographer.”

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Capa book. A fascinating combo of biography and his images.

[Owain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as part biography of Capa himself and part chronicle of his career, which ended when he did. Capa remains enigmatic to this day and has left a mark not only on the photojournalism and war correspondence trades but also upon the histories of the events he documented.

I first heard of Robert Capa and his girlfriend Gerda Taro about this time last year at the Len Crome memorial lecture on the Spanish Civil War in Manchester and instantly knew these were people I had to know more about. Taro was a major part of Capa's life prior to and during the Civil War and to an extent they shared a common background and philosophy. Both daring and political motivated they documented the Spanish Civil War from the side of the Republicans although towards the end Taro lost her life in the war zone.

Capa went on to photograph the first wave of the assault on D-day in Normandy astounding the world in the process before winding up being killed by a landmine photographing the Vietnam War.

Capa always had Socialist sympathies and yet he was pro - Israeli and went to photograph he conflict in Israel in the 1940's. I ascribe this down partly to his Jewish heritage and the post-holocaust need for security amongst the Jewish people which lead them to support the Zionist movement. The book says many socialist veterans of the Spanish civil war also went to fight for the cause of forcefully removing the Palestinian people from their land. I do not agree with this but I can see how people would have been easily swayed to the Zionist cause in light of the contemporary events, which of course does not excuse the actions.

Capa is shown to be brave and committed to his trade, even though he was anti-war he obviously felt a strong need to inform people of the realities and of which side was wrong and right in the large number of conflicts he covered.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for anyone interested in Robert Capa and his career. This is not a biography but a review of his career from the time he moved to Paris and divided into sections using his changes in indentity from Andre Friedmann to Robert Capa and finally Bob Capa. The controversy surrounding his iconic photo "The Falling Soldier" is thoroughly discussed.