![]() In the process, he created a narrative myth for Magnum too that has helped propel it over more than half a century. He used his marketing genius for conceiving and promoting photo stories to serve the organisation, procuring work for photographers, balancing individuals’ artistic or personal goals with the marketable story product. It also drove the creation and development of Magnum as an independent community of photographers. ![]() On his own account, it allowed him to escape the poverty and anti-semitism of central Europe, and the suffocating control of employers. In this respect, he combined exceptional courage in fully playing the role of the photographer-as-hero with a deep understanding of the value and purpose of doing so. What underlay his narrative strategies and showmanship, beyond his particular points of view on the rights and wrongs of any particular conflict, was a belief in the ideals of independence – both individual freedom and creative independence. Slightly Out of Focus, his gripping chronicle of World War II written with film rights in mind, states on the original dust jacket: ‘Writing the truth being obviously so difficult, I have in the interests of it allowed myself to go sometimes slightly beyond and slightly this side of it.’ He positively sought to be, and to be seen as, larger-than-life. ![]() It also involved good judgement about when it was appropriate to exaggerate the facts, something he did not try to hide. This was not the chance product of his actions, but the role in which he cast himself – borne in his professional decisions, from adopting a suitable movie-star name (né André Friedman) to making sure he was among the first to land on the D-Day beachhead. His power as a communicator depended too on his mythic status as narrator, or more specifically, on being considered the ‘greatest war photographer ever’. ![]() Capa’s wars may have been terrible, but in his hands they nevertheless retained a Homeric sense of romance. Without underestimating his talent for making photographs, it hardly mattered if they were ‘slightly out of focus’ if the story in question had the ingredients of myth – of heroism, courage and sacrifice. His art lay in risking where to be and when, in how he built and conducted the relationships that enabled him to be there, and in how he shaped and presented the narrative of events he witnessed. This is despite the majority of Magnum’s photographers later discreetly or emphatically distancing themselves from his storytelling approach.Ĭapa’s photography is all about being there, close. Almost single-handedly, he created Magnum’s tradition of photographic storytelling, and it is a testament to the reputation he forged for the photojournalist-as-narrative hero that Magnum continues to be associated with it. The genius of Robert Capa (1913-54) lay in narrative. The following text, extracted from Magnum Stories, explores Capa’s distinctive approach to photojournalism, and also includes his first-hand account of covering the invasion, from his illustrated memoir Slightly Out of Focus. Capa’s legendary documentation of the event saw him join the soldiers as they advanced, experiencing the landing on Omaha Beach alongside them as he photographed the scene. ![]() The largest seaborne attack in history, it was also one of the bloodiest, with a combination of strong winds, unruly tidal currents and a formidable German defensive, resulting in the loss of 2,400 American lives by the end of the first day. Robert Capa’s photographs of US forces’ assault on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6 1944, are an invaluable historic record of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France, which contributed to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control a year later. The above image is offered as part of Magnum Editions prints, a new collection of timeless photographs, available now in 8×10’’ format in limited quantity. ![]()
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