Robert Capa (Budapest , 22/10/1913 - Thai Bihn (Vietnam), 25/05/1954)

Capa, Robert, pseudonym of Endre Ernö Friedmann (Budapest, October 22, 1913 - Thai Bihn (Vietnam), May 25, 1954). Photographer and war correspondent. Son of a wealthy Jewish family, Ernö was introduced to photography and art by Eva Benyo, but it will be under Lajos Kássak’s guidance that Ernö becomes a professional artist. Kássak will support artistically, economically and personally Ernö in his first years. In 1929, with the arrival of the Fascist troops to Hungary, Ernö will move to Germany and after a few years’ stay in Berlin, he will move to Paris. It is in Paris where he meets the photographer David Seymour, who will offer Ernö a job as a graphic reporter in the magazine Regards. During this period Ernö is in charge of reporting the mobilizations on the Popular Front. Shortly after, he will meet Gerda Taro Phorylle who will become his companion.

Together, they will create the pseudonym Robert Capa – an American name that will be used indistinctly by both photographers to increase the value of their work. This feature has created a certain degree of controversy regarding the authorship of certain photographs. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Taro and Ernö move to Spain. Committed with fighting Fascism and with the Republican cause, they reported from the beginning of the war on the Madrid front up to the retreat in Catalonia. During the war Gerda Taro will perish, hit by a military tank, and while her career will come to a fatal end, Capa’s international prestige will skyrocket. Photographs as “Death of a Loyalist soldier” (the authorship and truthfulness of the image have been questioned) which was taken on the Cerro Muriano on the front of Cordoba on September 5, 1936, allow for Capa’s fame to grow.

Capa’s work with Life magazine during the Second World War (Capa reported on the Japanese bombings in China, the campaigns in North Africa and the Normandy landings) will confer him worldwide fame. In 1946, Capa becomes an American citizenship and a year later he founded Magnum with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rodger, Vandiver and David Seymour. Magnum was the first cooperative agency of independent photographers. Capa was not only a war photographer, but also an artist. He often portrayed artists and writers as Picasso and Hemingway.
Capa’s death occurred during the war in Indochina while Capa was on duty. In the early morning of May 25, 1954 while accompanying the French troops, Capa stepped on a mine and died. He was 40 years old.