In Part I and Part II of this Pho·tog Friday Series on Robert Capa, we looked Capa's photographs taken throughout his life during times of war and conflict. To conclude this series, I wanted to share a few of Capa's unpublished color photographs that have recently appeared in a show at the International Center of Photography in New York.
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| Capa, Robert, A mechanic signals for takeoff to an Allied pilot before a raid over Occupied France, England, 1941. |
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| Capa, Robert, A crewman signals another ship of an Allied convoy across the Atlantic from the U.S. to England, 1942. |
What is interesting about many of these images is that although some still depict Capa's usual subject matter, many of these images also show a more "quiet side"; for example, the lives of famous artists and authors or models posing on the banks of the Seine:
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| Capa, Robert, Ernest Hemingway and his son Gregory, Sun Valley, Idaho, Oct. 1941. |
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| Capa, Robert, Model wearing Dior on the banks of the Seine, Paris, 1948. |
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| Capa, Robert, Pablo Picasso playing in the water with his son Claude, Vallauris, France, 1948. |
It's said that Capa used to wear two - sometimes three - cameras around his neck at the same time. Along with shooting both color and black and white film, Capa also shot in a variety of formats: 35mm, square format and at times, 4x5. "It’s not clear why Capa shot some photographs in black and white and
others in color. Capa always shot both, Young says (Curator at the ICP) and he was well
aware that magazines would pay more for color. “He could sell the color
for more than a black and white picture,” she said. “It was more exotic
and [garnered an] exclusive for certain stories (Wallace, web)".
"As to why these photos haven’t been seen before 2014, Young points to shifting attitudes towards color photography. 'People are interested again in the origins of early color work, she says, explaining that color used to only be the “domain of amateurs.' Young also notes that technology had improved the museum’s ability to restore the aging and often fragile negatives to their original dynamic range (Wallace, web)".
To read more about Capa's color photographs at the ICP, please click "here".
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01. Wallace, Vaughn. "Robert Capa’s Unpublished Color Photographs Debut at ICP." TIME: LightBox. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.