After more than half a century the work of the world’s greatest war photographer still holds weight, but the character behind the lens is even more intriguing.
Author Alex Kershaw records photographer Robert Capa’s life in detail until the very end. Let’s just say it was a fitting finale for someone’s whose career spanned five wars. The well-rounded sources (all heavily documented) provided a biography anyone interested in history or dynamic personalities, not just photography, would be hard pressed to put down.
To understand his amazing career, the biography focuses on Capa’s personal life where there was never a dull moment. Affairs with the most popular movie stars in the world, gambling away the saving from a soon-to-be iconic photo agency, heavy drinking, more women … I don’t know where to began.
A name change is an appropriate start for the Hungarian Jew. While having an identity crisis in 1936 Paris, Andre Friendmann, 23, chooses to become Robert Capa, a mysterious-sounding American name, and he never looks back.
The name propels his photography career from the ranks of a no one to the world’s first prominent war photographer. The change is also important due to the rise of Nazi Germany and throughout his life Capa was never afraid to fight the fascists with his best weapon: his Leica.
With his new name, Capa goes on to cover wars stretching from the romantic Spanish Civil War to the pointless Vietnam War where he was the first journalist killed in the conflict.
“If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,” Capa is quoted as saying and his photos were known to show the intimacy of war. One example would be his shots of the first invasion of Omaha Beach during D-Day where he was the only photographer present.
While his famous war images are well known, in “Blood and Champagne“ we learn behind the scenes details that only add to his legacy. For instance, of the 90 photos he shot from the initial D-Day invasion, the vast majority were ruined by a photo lab assistant.
Capa’s images of men at their worst appeared in magazines throughout the world, and he quickly achieved fame, but never fortunate. As it turns out, Capa was quite the gambler, and his poker skills were inferior to his photography.
Krenshaw’s not afraid to call Capa out on his faults. Blaming the fact that his line of work perpetually made death a reality, Capa lived fast. Besides gambling, he embellished, had a steady stream of women at his side, lived in excess (hotels, clothes, food, ect.), and even likely staged some photos to further his political beliefs and career.
In a way it only makes his life that much more remarkable – it shows he really was human.
(e-version of the book here. If I was the author I would be livid.)
