PHOTO:Robert Capa in Colour

Robert Capa (22/10/13-25/5/54), the photographer whose name is synonymous with photos of couples at War, from 1938 Robert Capa regularly used color film until his death in 1954. Some of the photographs were published on the magazines of the day, but over the years the color icons were virtually forgotten. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of presents the photographers color work for first time, from over 100 contemporary color prints. Drawn entirely from ICP’s collection, including contextual publications and personal papers, the exhibition presents a fascinating new look at this master of black-and-white photography.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photos: ICP

Endre Friedmann (Robert Capa) was born in 22/10/13 in Budapest, Hungary and became one of the most important photojournalists of the 20th century. As a teenager he was interested to literature and politics, the reasons that he was exiled from his country were his protests against the ooppression and the anti-Semitism of the Government. So he moved to Berlin, to study journalism, at first, but ended up working as an assistant photographer in the darkroom of the Agency “Dephot”, from which undertook his first mission to photograph the exiled Russian revolutionist Leon Trotsky. In 1933, he moved from Germany to France because of the rise of Nazism and persecution of Jewish journalists and photographers, in Paris he covered the politic of the National Front, having gained  international reputation in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, in 1938, he traveled to the Chinese city of Hankow, to document the resistance to the Japanese invasion. Then he traveled to the Italy, England, France and Germany in the whole War Word II. In 1947, Capa founded the cooperative venture Magnum Photos in Paris with Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Vandivert, David Seymour, and George Rodger. During 1938, when he was covering the Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion he wrote a letter to a friend of his in New York and asking for 12 rolls of Kodachome and instructions how to use them. Four of those photographs published in the ”Life Magazine”, those were Capa’s first experiments with color film, he was a pioneer among the other Photographers of his period. During II Word War he used more often color film since he often carried two cameras. During an Allied Convoy through Atlantic Ocean he shoot color icons for the ‘’Saturday Evening Post’’ journal and later he traveled to North Africa and some of his work published at the  ‘’Illustrated’’ and  ‘’Collier’s’’ magazines. During 1944 and 1945 he returned to the black and white film for practical reasons. The use of color film for Robert Capa was a standard for his Post War photographs for the magazines ‘’Holiday’’, ‘’Illustrated’’, ‘’Collier’s’’, and ‘’Ladies’ Home Journal’’. In 1947 Capa traveled to the Soviet Union with his friend, the American writer John Steinbeck and also to Israel.  Except from War photos like many photographers of his era he covered fashion in Paris and Rome, Alpine Ski, Hollywood celebrities and also Biarritz and  Deauville resorts. The exhibition also includes the last color photographs from the First Indochina War. From the late 40’s until the early 50’s, Robert Capa, traveled all across the Globe as a photo-reporter of the Magnum Photo Agency covering the Arab-Israeli War and finally the First Indochina War (1954) lost his life after stepped on a landmine. For the famous photographer, color photograph was not a complement to his black and white work into his life and career, at the 40s and 50s and had equivalent position, as it is seen through the tribute of ICP.

The exhibition was organized by ICP, Curator: Cynthia Young, International Center of Photography (ICP), 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street,New York, NY 10036, U.S.A.. Duration: 31/1- 4/5/14. On October 22, 2013, ICP released the only existing recording of the famed photojournalist’s voice, from an interview on WNBC’s radio program “Hi! Jinx.” Now preserved in the ICP Archive, the recently discovered recording can be heard in its entirety at www.icp.org