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Robert Capa: A Biography
The legendary war photographer Robert Capa carried into his personal life the same remarkable vitality that characterizes his pictures. Driven from his native Hungary by political oppression, he was first recognized for photographing the Spanish Civil War. In 1938 he was in China recording the Japanese invasion. During World War II he was in London, North Africa, and Italy, and then in France covering D-Day on Omaha Beach, the liberation of Paris, and the Battle of the Bulge. When the new nation of Israel was founded in 1948 he was there. In 1954 he was in Vietnam, taking photographs until the moment he was killed.
Away from battle, Capa gather about him such famous people as Ernest Hemingway and his wife (the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn), Gary Cooper, Irwin Shaw, and Gene Kelly. Whelan shows Capa photographing the street life of Paris, crisscrossing America on assignment from Life, in Russia with John Steinbeck, in Italy with John Huston, on the Riviera with Picasso, and with Ingrid Bergman.
342 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 21, 2012
For the first 77 pages of this book I was convinced Endre Ernő Friedmann was a sloth, an idiot and a bumbling fool who took advantage of anyone he came into contact with and left little more than destruction and ambivalence in his wake.
For the next 50 pages I was convinced he had hoodwinked the journalistic world using any sort of duplicitous artifice he could manage to further his agenda. I am almost certain his Falling Soldier image was staged and entirely fake. There is little doubt in my mind of that. Just the idea that he created a fictitious person, Robert Capa, which he later became, to further his agenda lends at least some credence to this being true.
But it was at this point that I began to like Robert Capa. Just as it seemed he did in real life to just about everyone in his life he seemed to do to me just hearing about him. I was seduced by his charm and his genuine sense of concern for enjoying life and doing whatever it took to stand up for what he may have felt was receiving less exposure than it probably deserved.
By the end of this book I was heartbroken by Capa’s death. He was courageous and unfettered by many of the things that I believe have left the modern world in a shambles.
This book is an amazing read just as Whelan’s book about Alfred Stieglitz was. Well written and extremely well researched, it is at once thoughtful and heartfelt and a genuine portrait of the man in his darkest dark and in his brightest light.
I recommend it to anyone interested in photography or just intriqued by people in general. Robert Capa is now on my short list of favorite photographers. If someone said, Who would you have lunch with if given the opportunity, living or dead? I would say, Robert Capa.
For the next 50 pages I was convinced he had hoodwinked the journalistic world using any sort of duplicitous artifice he could manage to further his agenda. I am almost certain his Falling Soldier image was staged and entirely fake. There is little doubt in my mind of that. Just the idea that he created a fictitious person, Robert Capa, which he later became, to further his agenda lends at least some credence to this being true.
But it was at this point that I began to like Robert Capa. Just as it seemed he did in real life to just about everyone in his life he seemed to do to me just hearing about him. I was seduced by his charm and his genuine sense of concern for enjoying life and doing whatever it took to stand up for what he may have felt was receiving less exposure than it probably deserved.
By the end of this book I was heartbroken by Capa’s death. He was courageous and unfettered by many of the things that I believe have left the modern world in a shambles.
This book is an amazing read just as Whelan’s book about Alfred Stieglitz was. Well written and extremely well researched, it is at once thoughtful and heartfelt and a genuine portrait of the man in his darkest dark and in his brightest light.
I recommend it to anyone interested in photography or just intriqued by people in general. Robert Capa is now on my short list of favorite photographers. If someone said, Who would you have lunch with if given the opportunity, living or dead? I would say, Robert Capa.
July 31, 2013
Interesting biography of an interesting man. Fun-loving, internationalist photographer Capa had a great influence on all who met him. He was lucky to have lived as long as he did, with all the risks he took.
January 21, 2024
The story behind old Life Images sometimes the person behind the camera is as compelling a the pictures themselves.
July 25, 2025
Very interesting behind the scenes of a Hungarian Jew's interpretation of WWII and insight to a creative mind and photographer genius.
July 31, 2007
Robert Capa was a wonderful charismatic man and a great photographer. The biography by RW is adequate though not scintillating.
July 19, 2014
Excellent.
April 10, 2015
One of the best biographies I have ever read.
April 20, 2017
Richard Whelan’s 1985, ROBERT CAPA: A BIOGRAPHY is the definitive bio of the deservedly renowned combat photographer. So there’s not much I can add other than to note that Whelan interviewed dozens and dozens of Capa’s friends and associates. With the march of time no one will ever again have such an opportunity to gather first-hand details. But there is one comment that I can make that is worth your consideration. If you are interested in Robert Capa, I suggest that you first read his rather fanciful “autobiography” SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS before reading Whelan’s account. Capa’s book lets you see how he saw himself or wanted to be seen. Whelan will set you straight on the facts; but Capa’s words create an alternate reality that actually may be more true in spirit.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews