Robert Capa: His Life

by Robert Capa

Robert Capa was the most highly acclaimed war photographer of his time, and one of the most courageous photojournalist who ever lived. His startling, often shocking images of the realities of war served to bring home the true horrors of combat, while conveying the intense humanity of their creator. Capa hated war, but he was drawn to it. From his earliest pictures of the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, to the Japanese invasion of China, from his work as a war correspondent for Life and Collier covering American conflicts in North Africa and Europe during the second World War, to the emergence of the Israeli homeland, Capa portrayed the incredible heroism and suffering of the soldiers on the front lines and in the war-torn lives of civilians. Although his career was cut short when he was tragically killed by a land mine in Thai-Binh, Indochina, Capa remains one of the most celebrated, imitated, and revered photographers of all the time. The more than 100 photos presented in this volume spans the entire spectrum of Capa's varied career, including his most legendary Hollywood photo's, and rare images of post-war Germany.

100 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann) was a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

Friedman had fled political repression in Hungary when he was a teenager, moving to Berlin, where he enrolled in college. He witnessed the rise of Hitler, which led him to move to Paris, where he met and began to work with his professional partner Gerda Taro, and they began to publish their work separately. Capa's deep friendship with David Seymour-Chim was captured in Martha Gellhorn's novella, Two by Two. He subsequently covered five wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and the First Indochina War, with his photos published in major magazines and newspapers.

During his career he risked his life numerous times, most dramatically as the only civilian photographer landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, and the liberation of Paris. His friends and colleagues included Ernest Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck and director John Huston.

In 1947, for his work recording World War II in pictures, U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Capa the Medal of Freedom. That same year, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers. Hungary has issued a stamp and a gold coin in his honor.

He was killed when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam.