Ernest Andrei Friedmann, or Robert Capa, was born in Budapest on October 22, 1913. Little did he know, at the time, that he would be the most famous war photographer of the 20th century.
Like most photographers, he started his career with small projects, but always found himself in the middle of a war. At the age of 18, Capa left his home and found work in Berlin.
From 1936-1939 Capa was in Spain photographing the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War. After, he traveled to China to capture the Japanese Invasion.
But, some of Capa's best work had come from World War II. Capa had been in New York City at the start of WWII, because he had moved there to escape Nazi persecution. But, after being fired from "Collier's Weekly", Capa began working for "Life" magazine, and traveled around the world taking pictures of the war. June 6, 1944, D-Day, Capa swam ashore along with the second assault wave, armed with only two cameras and spare rolls of film. That day he took over 100 photos, only to lose nearly all of them due to a developing mistake by a worker at "Life". But out of the, now eight, photo's, the photo on the left is one of Capa's best work even though it is out of focus. The picture is of a soldier swimming ashore during the D-day Invasion. The photo below is a picture of the soldiers beginning their invasion. After WWII, Capa took a break from photography, but shortly after his break he was in the field again. He traveled to Southeast Asia photographing the Indochina War. The French had been fighting there for the past 8 years, and Capa was assigned by "Life" to photograph it. But, on May 25, 1954, Capa's photography career was suddenly ended. While following two French regimes through dangerous areas, under fire, Capa left his jeep to photograph the advance. A few minutes later, Capa was killed by a land-mine. He was taken to a local hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival due to a serious chest wound, and his leg was blown to pieces.
Capa left behind a legacy. There was even an award created in his honor, The Robert Capa Gold Medal. This medal annually given to a photographer with the best published photo from abroad, requiring courageous actions to achieve the photo. Capa was a great photographer, who always said, "If your picture isn't good enough, you're not close enough."
(These are the sites where I got my information on Robert Capa)
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