This is War!
A New Weapon to Fight the War!
With the advent of photography in late 1800s, a new, probably the most powerful weapon came about, a camera. As soldiers fought the war with guns and other weapons with the intentions of killing people, Robert Capa fought the Spanish Civil War with a less gory, but a more powerful weapon.
Robert Capa was arguably the greatest war photographer in the twentieth century. He covered five wars in his career as a photojournalist: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. His striking images appeared for the first time in the magazines, newspapers and journals acquainting everyone around the world of the true colors of the war. Back then television wasn’t as widespread as it is today; therefore photographs were the first and closest thing to bring the war to the people who are safe in their homes far away from the horrors of the war.
His most famous picture is titled D-Day landing and was taken on June 6, 1944 when he and other soldiers were landing on the Omaha Beach. The image seems to be slightly out of focus; however that didn’t stop numerous magazines from printing it out and in some cases making it a front cover. This is one of the most exciting pictures because it brings war to people’s homes and the image portrays the heart of the fire of the war.
All of Robert Capa’s images are stunning and one reason they are spectacular i s because he was able to get extremely close to the action. His famous quote “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” says it all. You have to get close to the picture in order to get the best possible live shot and if the photo is not good enough, then you’re just not close enough to the action. Unlike soldiers who are armed with guns, he was armed with a 50mm camera and a couple of rolls of film. Dangerous is not strong enough to describe the danger of snapping pictures in the middle of the war. And unfortunately his fate was that of many soldiers after stepping in a land mine.
The International Center of Photography in their current exhibition on War Photography was able to bring Robert Capa’s work back to life. They were able to juxtapose the original images the Robert Capa took with the same images featured in magazines and newspapers. ICP was also able to blend handwritten notes, his personal letters and of course his photographs to put together a jigsaw puzzle giving us insight into his work and bringing one of the greatest photographers back to life.