Robert Capa

Robert Capa was a persona invented in Paris in 1933 by the Hungarian-born Andre Friedmann and Gerda Taro, partly so his pictures could command higher prices on the freelance market^*1. His image of the Falling Soldier from the Spanish Civil War made him internationally famous, even as debate over its exact circumstances has never ended^*2. On D-Day in 1944 he photographed the Normandy landings, but a darkroom accident destroyed most of the negatives, leaving only eleven surviving frames from Omaha Beach^*3. In 1947 he helped found Magnum Photos, building an agency in which photographers would retain control over their work rather than simply serving magazine demand^*4. After covering five wars, he was killed by a landmine in Indochina in 1954. His legacy continued through Magnum, the ICP's Robert Capa Gold Medal, and the later discovery of the Mexican Suitcase of Spanish Civil War negatives^*5.