BIOGRAPHY:

The famous photographer the world knows as Robert Capa was actually born as Adre Friedmann in Budapest, Hungary, in 1913. He left for Berlin and studied at Berlion University when he was only 18, and upon Hitler's rise to power moved to Paris. There, he created the identity of Robert Capa, the name change being conducive to selling his photographs by passing himself off as a talented American.

Capas most famous photograph, Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936) was taken during his first assignment in Spain at the time of the Spanish Civil War. He was always at the forefront of every battle, and believed that if one's pictures weren't good enough, then one simply wasn't close enough to the action. His many acts of bravery made him famous, and that along with the sheer quality of his phtoograhs made him the most well known photographer of his generation. His coverage of the Second World War earned him the Medal of Freedom Citation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and throughout his career until the time of his death in 1954, he had covered a total of five wars. Incidentally, Capa was killed in Indo-China after stepping on a land mine, on an assignment that wasn't even his to begin with.

While his war photographs certainly catapaulted him into the spotlight, Capa had also started up a picture agency known as Magnum on the side. Together with friends and associates David Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and Bill Vandivert, they turned the picture agency into a success. He also at one point worked for LIFE magazine.

John Steinbeck wrote of Capa:

"Capa's pictures were made in his brain. The camera only completed them. You can no more mistake his work than you can the canvas of a fine painter. He knew, for example, that you cannot photograph war because it is largely an emotion. But he did ph otograph that emotion by shooting beside it. He could show the horror of a whole people in the face of a child. His camera caught and held emotion."

"Capa's pictures were made in his brain."

-- John Steinbeck

For Additional information on Capa, please refer to the following websites:

Robert Capa Biography

American Masters; Robert Capa

Robert Capa