October 1, 2007

I commend and recommend the parallel exhibitions at New York’s International Center of Photography: “This is War! Robert Capa at Work” and “Gerda Taro” -- a visual resurrection of the collaboration and love affair between photojournalists Capa, considered the godfather of modern war photography, and Taro, the first woman to shoot combat from the front lines (during the Spanish Civil War). Taro would die on the battlefield in 1937.

TARO WITH CAPA (INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY)

I was especially taken with the Taro’s compositional flair, imagination, and subtle eye, compared to Capa’s. At this early stage in his career, he had not yet become the accomplished craftsman and creator of icons into which he would evolve. Many of her images (taken in square format, with a Rollei, compared to Capa’s horizontal frames shot with what was a new format at the time: 35-mm) seem, if possible, more observant.

A revelation: Her image of two armed Spanish partisans on a hill, and a third man in the foreground (possibly Capa?). The man on the left, it turns out, is actually Capa’s famous “Falling Soldier” – the first photograph showing someone in the process of being mortally wounded in combat. Taro, it turns out, had been positioned right next to Capa that day and photographed the soldier only moments before Capa did.