"If your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough," said Endre Erno Friedmann, known by his war name Robert Capa, the alter ego created with his partner Gerda Taro, with whom he made history as the photographer of the Spanish Civil War, D-Day, the Liberation of Paris, and the drama of Indochina, where he died at the age of 40.
The adventurous life and work of the wandering Jew born in Budapest, fleeing fascism and reborn in Paris with his Leica 2, is showcased like never before in Robert Capa: War Photographer, the exhibition where the Museum of Liberation pays tribute until the end of the year to the pioneer of photojournalism and co-founder of the Magnum agency (whose name, beyond its Latin grandeur, is probably due to his fondness for magnum bottles of champagne).
Living and drinking like Hemingway (whom he portrayed drinking before the battle of Teruel), Capa has also become a legend, starting with the origin of his alias. Capa means shark in Hungarian, although another theory suggests that the full name comes from the fusion of Robert Taylor and Frank Capra, representing a fictional "rich and successful American photographer" who tripled his fees.
The exhibition begins with his first photo as a photojournalist for the magazine Regards, disguised among workers to capture Leon Trotsky during a speech in Copenhagen. His ability to reach where others cannot and click at the right moment, without time to adjust the focus, distinguished Friedmann long before he embraced his new name.
He arrived in Spain with the German photographer Gerda Taro (born Gerta Pohorylle), with whom he shared the Robert Capa name for a while. Their mission was to portray the war from the Republican side, true to their anti-fascist commitment.
The exhibition delves into the debate on the authenticity of Death of a Militiaman, the iconic photo of the Spanish Civil War, taken in Espejo, Cordoba, in September 1936. Was it really a combat photo or a staged scene? Did he take the shot, or was it Gerda Taro, as suggested by the negatives found in the mysterious suitcase lost in Mexico?
Taro died shortly after in an accident during the Republican retreat after the Battle of Brunete, leaving Robert Capa alone facing danger and glory. His next scoop was the Normandy Landing, armed with two cameras, navigating through corpses and "insanely taking photo after photo, slightly out of focus." Then came the Liberation of Paris, embedded with the resistance and the legendary General Leclerc. The highlight of the exhibition is an unreleased documentary with footage filmed by American soldiers, where Capa appears and reappears, gifted with the ability of ubiquity. "The investigation began 20 years ago, and we have finally been able to reconstruct Robert Capa's steps on August 25 and 26, 1944," explains Vincent Bay, the museum's audiovisual director. "We identified Capa in a dozen shots and could establish a link between his movements and his photos of the Liberation."
The final part of the exhibition is dedicated to Robert Capa's brief and intense life in Hollywood, from his friendship with John Huston and Grace Kelly to his love affairs with Ingrid Bergman. The sad epilogue is his last photo, in May 1954, while covering the Indochina War on a French Army expedition when he stepped on a landmine in a rice field.
"His images are not just a testimony of the 20th century," warns the exhibition's curator, Sylvie Zaidman. "His photos possess such power that, a century later, they still offer a timeless view of war."