Robert capa essay

In 1947, for his work recording World War II in pictures, U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Capa the Medal of Freedom. That same year, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers.

While in Spain, Capa befriended Ernest Hemingway and accompanied him, photographing the war as they went, which the writer later described in his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway’s article about his time in Spain was published in Life magazine, along with many photos taken by Capa.

He also covered the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and in 1954, the First Indochina War. He was born in 1913 named Endre Friedmann into a Jewish family in Budapest, then part of Austro-Hungary.

Capa's first published photograph was of Leon Trotsky making a speech in Copenhagen on "The Meaning of the Russian Revolution" in 1932. From 1936 to 1939, Capa worked in Spain, photographing the Spanish Civil War, along with Gerda Taro, his companion and professional photography partner, and David Seymour.