Pho·tog Friday: Robert Capa (Part II)

Scherman, David, Weymouth, England, 1944.
In Part I of this Pho·tog Friday Series on Robert Capa, I left off with the photographs that Capa took on Omaha Beach on D-Day, 1944.  Although the photographs which Capa took of the Allied Invasion on June 6th of that year are some of his most inspirational images, they certainly were not the last.  For the remainder of his life, Capa continued to take photographs of war and conflict in order to make a positive change.

In 1947, Capa traveled together to the former Soviet Union with American author, John Steinbeck.  The result of their collaboration was a book titled A Russian Journal, which was published in 1948.  During their travels, Capa took photographs in Moscow, Kiev, Soviet Georgia, Tbilisi, and Batumi. Capa also photographed the ruins of Stalingrad. Given that the Cold War had recently begun, Steinbeck made recordings of the people living under the Soviet rule, run by Joseph Stalin. Western Media reported that those living in the Soviet Union were content, living peacefully both in the city and countryside.  However, Capa and Steinbeck's publication told a different story: the average Russian was not necesarily afraid of Stalin but of another World War.  Steinbeck's book became a valuable historic record of the truth behind Stalin's rule and how it effected the lives of his people.  Below are some of the photographs Capa took during his trip through Russia; for more information on the photos below, please click "here":

Capa, Robert, from A Russian Journal, 1947.

The same year that Capa toured the Soviet Union, he also founded the a photography agency in Paris: Magnum Photo Agency.  Capa was a co-founder alongside photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Vandivert, David Seymour, and George Rodger.  The agency was run completely by the photographers themselves and quickly became well known for their amazing photojournalists.  

After founding the legendary Magnum Photo Agency, Capa ventured to Israel in 1948 with another author, Irwin Shaw and captured photographs for his book titled Report on Israel. For more information the photos below, please click "here":


For the next two years, Capa traveled throughout Israel and photographed the birth of the "new" state.  He traveled to Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Neguev - to name a few.  His photographs taken of the people of Israel depict a wide range of topics: conflict, celebrations, immigration, borderlines, weddings, etc. 

In the early 1950s, Capa traveled to Japan for a photography exhibition for Magnum.  While he was in Japan, Life magazine gave him an assignment to travel to Southeast Asia to cover the First Indochina War where the French had been fighting for the past eight years.  This particular assignment lead Capa to Vietnam.  On May 25, 1954 around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Capa was traveling through a dangerous location with two journalists, John Mecklin and Jim Lucas.  Capa decided to exit their Jeep and walk forward with his camera; moments later Mecklin and Lucas heard a loud explosion that was caused by Capa stepping on a landmine.  Capa had lost his left leg and in an attempt to save his life, Mecklin and Lucas rushed him to a small hospital where he was pronounced dead.  Below is one of the last photographs that Capa shot the day he passed away: 

Capa, Robert, Vietnamese Troops Advancing, 154.

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01. "Robert Capa." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
02."Robert Capa." Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. 

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