There was a terrific exhibit of Gerda Taro's work at the ICP 5 years ago. She was really good, used a Rolleiflex and then a Leica and after she died quite a bit of her work was subsumed under the Capa name for commercial reasons. The catalog of the exhibit is probably still available: Gerda Taro pub. by Steidl, Gottingen ISBN 3-86521-532-1. Well worth reading.
Yes, absolutely. The softcover edition I have is ISBN 978-3-86521-945-9 and is still available in bookstores as far as I know. It contains some thirty pages of text by Irme Schaber, which is an excellent biography including information about Capa and her relationships both personal and professional with him.
Schaber wrote the definitive biography of Taro but as I recall it is only available in German and French(?).
Also in that book is ten pages or so by Richard Whelan on the topic of identifying Taro's work, which also touches on the questions of what was Capa's and what Taro's. The whole story is confused by them sharing cameras, and both using the "Capa" name for submission on occasion - plus after Taro's death, the "Capa" company continued to handle her work for a time and stamped some prints accordingly. Very interesting reading.
Whelan is known as the author of the definitive Capa biography, so between the two (Schaber and Whelan) these forty pages or so give a very good insight into the lives of both photographers. The name changes are also discussed of course. Plus, as a bonus, you get a whole book's worth of Taro photographs which are stunning.
Since it was mentioned above, Capa's
Slightly Out of Focus is a very entertaining read, but caution should be used in accepting it as the definitive truth. The pocket paperback edition I have contains a foreword that points out that in the first edition, Capa wrote explicitly that parts had been fictionalized. The whole thing was really conceived as a treatment for a screenplay for a movie about his life. Much of what happened is factual I am sure, but it's definitely neither a literal autobiography nor a factual recount of events. In particular there has been a great deal of analysis and debunking of his claim to have landed with the first wave... whatever, I'm not sure it really matters now. Anyway,
caveat emptor, but highly recommended as an entertaining read.
There's been so much disinformation and debate over all aspects of Capa and Taro... I really wish someone would translate the Schaber book into English. For now, the Whelan biography is probably the best source, but as I mentioned, that Taro book is an excellent resource.
