Collection: Robert Capa

Endre Ernő Friedmann (Hungarian: Friedmann Endre Ernő; 22 October 1913, Budapest, Hungary – 25 May 1954, Thai Binh, Vietnam), better known as Robert Capa , the alias he adopted with his partner Gerda Taro, was a war reporter, considered the most famous in history. His career as a war photojournalist began in Spain during the Civil War.

After the Spanish conflict, he also covered the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Second World War (the London Blitz in the Battle of Britain, the North African War, the invasion of Italy, the Battle of Normandy on Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris), the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the First Indochina War.

In 1947, in Paris, Endre Ernő Friedmann founded, together with David "Chim" Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert, the Magnum Photos organization, the first cooperation agency for independent photographers from around the world.

Spanish Civil War.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, the couple moved to Spain to cover the main events of the conflict. Involved in the anti-fascist struggle and the cause of the Republic, they were present on the main battlefronts from that side, from the beginning on the Madrid front to the final retreat in Catalonia.

Always on the front line, his photograph Death of a Militiaman,3 taken in Espejo, on the Córdoba front, on September 5, 1936, is world famous.

Reproduced in most books on the Civil War, its authenticity has been questioned by various experts. Although a local historian from Alcoy named the militiaman, Federico Borrell García, an anarchist militiaman, the documentary The Shadow of the Iceberg (2007) refutes this claim, citing witnesses, forensic doctors, and documents from the local archives in Alcoy. It also demonstrates the inconsistency of this theory and provides new photos of the militiaman's sequence that support the staging theory, as well as the possibility that the snapshot was not taken by Endre, but by Gerda Taro. In January 2008, according to CNN, a suitcase lost by Capa was found containing countless negatives of shots taken during the Spanish Civil War; a treasure of incalculable historical value. According to an article published on the website of El Periódico,4 it is clear that this group of photographs were taken 10 kilometers from the front, in the town of Espejo, where the Republican troops had their headquarters at that time, according to the newspaper.

Gerda Taro lost her life in an accident during the retreat of the Republican army. Gerda climbed onto the running board of General Walter's car (a member of the International Brigades). At one point, low-flying enemy planes caused panic in the convoy, and Gerda fell to the ground behind a small rise in the terrain. At that moment, a Republican tank reversed onto the road, jumping the rise behind which Taro was standing and falling on top of her. The tank's track ripped her limbs, and she was rushed to the English hospital of El Goloso in El Escorial. She died there a few hours later, in the early hours of July 26, 1937, six days before her 27th birthday. Her body was flown to Paris, where she received full honors as a Republican heroine. Her remains are buried in the 97th Division of the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.