The D Day Photos of Robert Capa

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by handtohand22, Nov 13, 2007.

  1. handtohand22

    handtohand22 Senior Member

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  2. Lucy Stag

    Lucy Stag Senior Member

    I love those photos, and Capa should be commended for not murdering the dark room person who ruined the rest of them.
     
  3. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Bludgeoning him with his bare hands, mind you. After what he went though to get them...
     
  4. Gnomey

    Gnomey World Travelling Doctor

    Yeah, I would of loved to of seen the rest of his shots.
     
  5. Lucy Stag

    Lucy Stag Senior Member

    I think the Nobel Prize people should have been alerted about that before Capa's death. If that doesn't deserve a peace prize, I don't know what does.

    The ones that did make it through are amazing, though.
     
  6. Jakob Kjaersgaard

    Jakob Kjaersgaard Senior Member

    Amazing, he's truly a pioneer.
     
  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

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  8. idler

    idler GeneralList

    It's certainly 'confident', but we're perhaps too used to people beating around the bush and allowing themselves an academic escape route in case their turn comes. I certainly wasn't aware that Capa had been captured on film on the day. I need to have another read of that when I'm awake... Thanks for posting it.
     
  9. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Some of the links in the article are very good, especially on the US DDs with the exhaust stacks that's been linked from the Hertick account.
     
  10. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Very interesting. Good find - thanks for sharing. I think the older I get the more I find “legends” like this being questioned and debunked. With my History hat on I applaud the need for considered and objective scholarship which endeavours to get to the truth but I think it’s part of human nature that we are so powerfully attracted to the heroic narrative and tales of individual courage in extreme situations. The problem of course is I now am increasingly cynical about any new stories of courage as I wait for them to be exposed.
     
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  11. tmac

    tmac Senior Member

    An interesting piece. But why make up the elaborate story about the darkroom error (if it was a fib)? If Capa wanted to lie about how many pictures he'd taken, he could just have said he lost the others in the sea. I don't quite know what to believe about this now. However, all this notwithstanding, you can't deny that he was there at the sharp end with his camera.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2019
  12. It was not Capa who invented the lie, but Morris. Capa however never contradicted this official, lying version and thus shares the blame.
    He certainly was at the sharp end, but not as sharp as was pretended and certainly less sharp and for much, much less time than for the British, Canadian and US Army and Navy photographers and cinecameramen who did land with the first waves (contrarily to Capa) and then stayed there (ditto), not few of them paying with wounds and even their lives the infinitely more numerous and valuable photos and films which tell the true story of the Invasion and subsequent campaigns.
    I personally have no sympathy for the authors of such a scam, fabricated for purely commercial reasons until it was so magistrally (and very recently) exposed, after having overshadowed for decades the genuine battle photos taken by truly courageous men.
    Like many of us I suppose, I felt betrayed when I learned the truth, perhaps even more by the systematic miscaptions of Capa's photos saying they showed men taking cover behind beach obstacles, when they actually were Demolition Units working under (and facing) fire to make room for the following waves.
    This, just like putting the blame on someone else (the dark room boy) to cover one's own shortcomings, is in my book the most damnable part of this miserable fiasco.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2019
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  13. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I'm finding it all quite interesting.
    As much for the emotive response both pro & anti. Art collides with history.

    I'm not convinced by much of the technical stuff, other than that film alignment thing (though that in itself casts fair shade on some analysis of how damaged the frames really are). The strong assertion of frames per cartridge does nothing for me. No bulk backs on his Contax RFs, but I've loaded normal cartridges with anything from six frames (cautious IR) to maybe almost 50. No idea how or what Capa loaded, and frame numbers are an irrelevance without absolute certainty of film style used.

    That Bellingcat style picture analysis is interesting as much in how it's spreading as anything else. Does perhaps paint a picture of Capa sticking his camera out of the boat, snapping a few shots and legging it. (Personally, I wouldn't have even got on the boat...)

    But... He was there, and went straight back, couriers are normal, and as Lee rightly says elsewhere - a war photographer, particularly Capa, being a bit iffy with his tales off derring-do shouldn't really surprise anyone.

    I still think it's interesting, but I still don't really see much grievous fraud or surprise in it.
    And lets face it, regardless of what he did or didn't do, from this thing to the Spanish Civil War business; he was still one hell of a photographer.
     
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  14. Noel Burgess

    Noel Burgess Senior Member

    Sorry I'm a bit late with this. My parents were married in June of 1944 (N E England), they lost all their wedding photographs when the "young lad" who worked in the photographer's dark room somehow ruined them. All they have is one photo taken by the local newspaper.
    I do not offer this as any kind of support for the Capa story but merely some evidence that this sort of thing could have happened
    Noel
     
  15. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Bodleian Libraries | Pre-eminent, rare collection of photobooks featuring best of 20th century photography donated to Bodleian Libraries

    Pre-eminent, rare collection of photobooks featuring best of 20th century photography donated to Bodleian Libraries

    Oxford, 28 February 2020 – A major collection of rare photobooks has been given to the Bodleian Libraries, building on the Libraries world-class collection of photographic works and books. The donation includes works from some of the most renowned photographers from the 20th century, including Man Ray and Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Diane Arbus.

    • Robert Capa’s Slightly out of Focus (1947), which features iconic images of the D-Day landings at Normandy, taken by the Hungarian-born photojournalist and co-founder of the famous Magnum photographic agency.

     
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  16. Reid

    Reid Historian & Architectural Photographer

    I purchased one of these images from Magnum, via their "Square Print" sale, held yearly around November.

    I'm a photographer and yes, have made my fair share of mistakes in the darkroom, processing B&W. The worst - forgetting a personal film that was washing, after answering a telephone call. I'd turned off the tap to save water and forgot about it, returning many hours later, only to find the emulsion had completely slid off the film base.

    Unlike Capa, I had nothing to show for my day out on that particular roll (the rest were fine), but I can believe there was a screw-up in the processing; easily done and, with an event like D-Day, wanting to see those shots ASAP would have anyone trying to get them processed and dried in the shortest time possible - dry that film quick? Turn up the heat, but go too far and yeah, it'll start melting.

    Regardless of the story behind these iconic images, IMHO the "screw-up" adds something to them - so much eerier than straight shots and this probably adds to their place in history.
     
  17. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    For all who have contributed, please seek out this dvd. I think it is very much a barely known (perhaps) classic.

    Tony Veccaro, in war a combat soldier first and foremost, a photographer second. His photographs, for me, are all the more remarkable because of this.

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.

    Tony Vaccaro dvd Cover.jpg
     
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  18. I'd rather say the myth of the screw-up has a place in historiography, not history, whose role in my view is precisely to get the facts right and not to perpetuate legends, however romantic (and in this case, self-serving) they might be. :D
     
  19. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    Jim,
    I have a copy of 'Entering Germany' book and wasn't aware of the dvd, I've just bought one.
    Many thanks
    Guy

    Screen Shot 2020-03-11 at 15.49.22.png
     
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  20. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    I hope you will find the dvd worth while Guy.

    And no spoilers, all I will add is that hearing Tony Vaccaro tell the story of his photos is poignant, heart rending stuff. Good moments and bad, he shows (and tells) it all.

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.
     
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