Robert Capa

Title: Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death
Artist: Robert Capa
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Year: September 5, 1936

Give a brief description of the movement, photographer, or term you researched. How are they significant to the history of photography (50-75 words)?

Robert Capa covered 5 different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the 1st Indochina War. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, the Battle of Normandy on Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris. His action photographs, such as those taken during the 1944 Normandy invasion, portray the violence of war with unique impact.


Write a short personal reaction to the movement, photographer or term you researched. What is interesting or not interesting about the work (50 – 75 words).

In my opinion Robert was a very brave man, it takes a lot to go to various wars and photograph soldiers in action killing each other. In 1936, he became known all over the world for a photo (known as the "Falling Soldier" photo) long falsely presumed to have been taken in Cerro Muriano of a Militiaman who had just been shot and was in the process of falling to his death. There has been controversy about the authenticity of this photograph. A Spanish historian identified the dead soldier as Federico Borrell García, from Alcoi (Alicante). This identification has been disputed. In 2003, the Spanish newspaper El Periodico claimed the photo was taken near the town of Espejo, 10 km from Cerro Muriano, and that the photo was staged. In 2009, a Spanish professor published a book titled Shadows of Photography, in which he showed that the photograph could not have been taken where, when, or how Capa and his backers have alleged. Many of Capa's photographs of the Spanish Civil War dubbed the "Mexican suitcase" were, for many decades, presumed lost, but surfaced in Mexico City in the late 1990s. Ownership of the collection was transferred to the Capa Estate, and in December 2007 was moved to the International Center of Photography, a museum founded by Capa's younger brother (who was also a photographer) Cornell in Manhattan.



Name (please only include if it is ok to publish on blog): Rachel Desalegne

NOTE: All of this is from Wikipedia.org (I don't want to get in trouble for plagiarism)