Robert Capa wasn't Robert Capa

[CameraQuest]

Some of you know all about this, but I found it more than interesting.
According to this new release by the BBC

Robert Capa wasn't Robert Capa. He was Andre Friedmann.

"Robert Capa" was a marketing invention by his companion Gerda Pohorylle - a talented war photogapher who is reputedly the female war photographer to die on assignment.

Unable to get assignments as the Hungarian photog Andre Friedmann, Gerda is credited with inventing Robert Capa - a famous photographer from America who COULD get war assignments!

Amazing. Unfortunately Gerda Pohorylle is mostly forgotten today, but this story will go a long way to give her the credit she deserves.

Read all about it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25108104

Stephen

 

[helen.HH]

Oh wow had No Idea about his name change....Clever gal she was !

I suppose there is a lot to be said about the 'magic' in a Name

 

[daveleo]

There have also been disputes about who actually took some of "Capa's" most famous pictures. Last that I read, it was apparent that two or more people contributed to his body of work, but others are arguing against this viewpoint.

Who knows ?

 

[bobbyrab]

He took Frank Capra's surname but dropped the r, as they thought it had the right ring to it.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I knew Robert Capa wasn't his real name; that's no secret. I didn't know about the woman who invented it, though.

 

[Pablito]

Gerda Pohorylle also took another name - Gerda Taro

 

[Chris101]

According to Kershaw's Blood and Champagne (p. 29), it happened slightly differently. Capa invented the name himself, and Pohorylle changed her's to Taro at the same time, during an interview in Paris. Capa was his mother's nickname for him. Robert was picked because it sounded like the quintessential American name.

 

[charjohncarter]

Robert Zimmerman equals Bob Dylan. Another screwball marketing ploy. If you can't make with your real name, well, maybe you shouldn't have made it.

 

[DoxLeica]

It's all here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDpxuKXFpQ

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Robert Zimmerman equals Bob Dylan. Another screwball marketing ploy. If you can't make with your real name, well, maybe you shouldn't have made it.

A lot of these artists and entertainers who changed their names were Jews who adopted names that didn't sound Jewish because of antisemitism.

 

[Monochrom]

in deed...and Gerda Pohorylle was the real name to Gerda Taro who died at the brunete battle smashed by a friendly republican tank...

 

[thompsonks]

The Capa biography that Chris mentioned, Kershaw's Blood and Champagne, is a really good read. It takes you in an exciting way through a lot of 20th century history, beginning with the Spanish Civil War. The title makes it sound like a potboiler, but it's not – it's carefully researched, both documents and interviews (but no photos by Capa – permission not granted).

Kirk

 

[rodinal]

"Blood and Champagne" is indeed a good read, but is a bad biography.
If your interest is historical rather than romantic, try "Robert Capa, A biography" by Richard Whelan.

 

[Dale D]

I just finished reading Blood and Champagne. A good read. One thing I found interesting regarding his films from the D-Day landings (he landed at Normandy with the first wave): when a darkroom clerk at Life ruined his films by leaving them in the drying cabinet too long, Capa apparently didn't seem that devastated, and in fact insisted that the clerk not be fired. Interesting, since he was pinned down on the beach for 90 minutes under intense fire while he shot those rolls.

Dale

 

[JSU]

So does this mean Cornell Capa may not be Robert Capa's (Andre Friedmann) brother?

 

[Joe Vitessa]

Also entertaining is Capa's own "Slightly Out of Focus," a memoir of his WWII war years. Most of the book is light, but his account of "storming" the beaches of Normandy with his Contaxes is chilling.

 

[Chris101]

in deed...and Gerda Pohorylle was the real name to Gerda Taro who died at the brunete battle smashed by a friendly republican tank...

I know. I got really sad when they described the friendly fire incident that she died from. She seemed like a really cool person in Kershaw's book. Had she lived, we'd all know her name.

 

[Chris101]

A lot of these artists and entertainers who changed their names were Jews who adopted names that didn't sound Jewish because of antisemitism.

A lot of people changed their names for political reasons. My grandfather's name was Oskar Heilmann. He changed it to Jeff Heilman while he was in the Army during the war. Made life so much easier. (He also took hundreds of photos and mailed them home. My mother has then squirrelled away somewhere in her home. At some point I plan to put a biography together of his life, using those pics.

 

[Sparrow]

According to Kershaw's Blood and Champagne (p. 29), it happened slightly differently. Capa invented the name himself, and Pohorylle changed her's to Taro at the same time, during an interview in Paris. Capa was his mother's nickname for him. Robert was picked because it sounded like the quintessential American name.

That's how I understood it, and both being good socialists they worked collectively anyway ... I heard it was Capa as a tribute to Frank Capra though.

Robert Zimmerman equals Bob Dylan. Another screwball marketing ploy. If you can't make with your real name, well, maybe you shouldn't have made it.

Really? like El Greco, born Doménikos Theotokópoulos
Canaletto born Giovanni Antonio Canale
Cigoli born Lodovico Cardi
Caravaggio born Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi
Man Ray born Emmanuel Radnitzky, and the like?

 

[MickH]

...not forgetting Geneses P-Orridge born Neil Andrew Megson.