Robert Capa D-day “ruined” film article

[Scrambler]

If you read the entire sequence of posts through you realise a LOT of wrong ideas were put forward, to be gradually moved past.

My final thought after all the reading was that Capa clearly intended to go and come straight back. The landing spot was fortunately the safest place to land. That people still died there.

The big issues were the lies told first and foremost by Magnum and later by Capa.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Life is too short to read this guys hyperbole about "myths" and his smugness about punishing a former American hero.

Interesting...''American hero''. At the outbreak of WWII, the authorities viewed Capa with suspicion, at best, as a Hungarian immigrant with a dubious past.

 

[emraphoto]

This "study" is seriously flawed: the authors went out to prove that Capa didn't take more shots because he was scared to death. Any investigation that is set up to prove a preconceived notion is by definition useless.

If Capa stayed for 1.5 hours as claimed, wouldn't you assume that such a veteran war photographer had taken more than 11 shots? Eyewitnesses said that this part of the beach was not under heavy fire; there are no bodies floating in the water, you don't see bullets or grenades hitting the water, and the soldiers that were supposed to be "hiding" behind the barriers were actually army engineers in the process of removing the barriers.

But maybe it is true that Capa only stayed for a rather short period of time and tried to rush the few pictures that he took back to Life magazine to meet the deadline.

It remains a question only folks that have been 'under fire' can answer. Be it heavy fire or light, it is an incredibly difficult and unnerving thing to do. There have been occasions, even with experience under my belt, that i have not taken any photographs and instead focused on staying alive.

 

[joe bosak]

Robert Capa D-day “ruined” film article

Robert Capa D-day “ruined” film article

Felt a bit "so what" to me. He got some photos, he got out, it was dangerous. Seemed to me that was all that really mattered. Sad fact of life is people jostle for fame, not sure which is which here, maybe both, nor sure i care 😉

 

[xayraa33]

Robert Capa was hyped during his lifetime but after his death the hype machine went in overdrive.
I wonder if the military industrial complex had a vested interest in Capa's elevation to "capo di tutti i capi" of war photographers for all time?

 

[p.giannakis]

I am pretty sure that there would be people accusing him for chickening out for having chosen not to walk through that mine field.... oh well...

Got scared and left? So what, that doesn't reduce the importance of those 11 pictures. If you are an academic historian and you want to know what really happened, sure why not.
For photography-minded people like myself, it's a bit of irrelevant. The pictures matter.

PS: Magnum is well known for editing contact sheets - remember HCB early work from Spain.