Robert Capa, Icons

Guided tour of the exhibition Robert Capa, Icons

Robert Capa is certainly "The world's greatest war photographer", as the English Picture Post wrote in 1937. He covered five wars - Spain, China, World War II, Israel, Indochina - and each time he brought back the best photos.

His success began at the start of the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, when he invented his pseudonym with his friend Gerta Porohylle; she became Gerda Taro and he, the Hungarian Endre Friedmann, Robert Capa.

He was also the originator of the modern photojournalist. From that time on, he was obsessed with the idea of defending the work of photojournalists: selling their photos directly to newspapers, keeping their prints and negatives, and controlling the captions that accompany their shots.

When he died in Indochina in April 1954, he had left behind thousands of photos scattered around the world. Cornell Capa, his brother, spent his life searching for them and building an official history. At the same time, independent research had shed light on the history of certain photos: the militiaman who fell during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, or those of the D-Day Landings on June 6, 1944.

This exhibition features some 150 period documents: original prints, newspapers, books and objects, mainly from the Golda Darty collection and the Magnum archives. Having access to one of his Leicas, his typewriter, his driver's license, or his indefinably charming prints helps to understand and explain the photographer's world.

But Capa was also a true lover of color photography, creating engaging portraits, fashion shots, film shoots and travel images: from Deauville to Biarritz, from the Alps to Budapest.