Robert Capa review

 

Robert Capa – The Definitive Collection – Phaidon £24.95

Blink. (10 curators, 100 photographers, 10 writers) – Phaidon £24.95

 

Fifty years after his death Robert Capa is still largely considered to be the best war photographer ever. Living by his dictum, “if your pictures aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough”, Capa delighted in always getting close to the action – parachuting behind enemy lines with Allied Forces during the Second World War and scrambling onto the beaches at Normandy – until finally getting too close in Viet Nam when he stepped on a landmine at the age of 41.

 

This superb definitive paperback collection of 937 photographs catalogues Capa’s varied career as a photojournalist, from his first noted assignment of photographing Leon Trotsky speaking in Denmark, through to the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, visits to China and Mexico, as well as portraits of celebrity friends including Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Ingrid Bergman.

 

Without doubt Capa’s black and white pictures still resonate an intense beauty and humanity. Whereas print and TV war correspondents still report largely from the perspective of allied troops, Capa also used his lightweight 35mm Leica camera to take shots of ordinary people affected by the war taking place around them, such as the photo of the young boy dressed as a republican soldier during the Spanish Civil War. Subsequent war photographers such as Philip Jones Griffiths and James Nachtwey – both of whom have worked at Magnum, the photo agency that Capa helped to co-found – have taken Capa’s approach further, not only recording how conflict has impacted soldiers and civilians, but questioning the purpose of war – an attitude that Capa flirted with, but did not fully develop.

 

Blink., also published by Phaidon, showcases the work of 100 of the world’s most exciting contemporary photographers in all styles of photography, from photojournalism to fashion. The selections of the ten curators vary considerably: from the bleak black and white portraits of Marc Asnin and the documentary style of Anna Palakunnathu Matthew, to the colourful and often garish Martin Parr-influenced photos of Gerald Van Der Kaap and Marcos Lopez.

 

While some of the photographers selected for the book might not be to everyone’s taste, the volume offers enough choice and diversity to appeal to most enthusiasts and gives an indication of how photography is set to progress.

 

For further information, visit www.phaidon.com and www.artimo.net

“Without doubt Capa’s black and white pictures still resonate an intense beauty and humanity”