Robert Capa (1913-1954) was born Andrei Friedmann of Budapest, Hungary. Friedmann moved to Paris, where he assumed the name “Robert Capa.” He participated in almost every great tragedy of his time; and achieved fame as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War for his “close-up views of death.”
The Spanish Civil War was just the beginning of Capa’s photographic career. During World War II Capa photographed the war from Africa, Sicily, and Italy; and his images of the Normandy Invasion became “some of the most memorable of the war.”
In 1946 Capa became a United States citizen, and joined with other photographers and founded Magnum Photos, the first international freelance photographer’s agency. In the year of 1954 Capa volunteered to photograph the French Indochina War, and was killed by a land mine.
“Spain Collapses” is just one of Robert Capa’s amazing photographs displaying the reality of war.
I picked this specific photograph because of the impact that it holds over its viewers. Upon a quick glance, the soldier almost blends in with his surroundings. With a closer inspection, we are able to identify the soldier, and the terrible conditions in which this soldier of war must fight. Devastation is his only surrounding. The broken debris of what seems to have once been a home lies on the ground around him, creating a barrier; the only thing between him and the enemy. From far away, a war can seem surreal. “Spain Collapses” brings the war to reality in the home of every individual.
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