Artists
Endre Ernö Friedmann (1913, Budapest, Hungary-1954, Thai Binh, Vietnam), better known as Robert Capa – a pseudonym he adopted together with his partner, Gerda Taro –, was one of the most influential figures in war photography. Son of Jewish parents, Friedmann studied political sciences in Berlin and moved to Paris in 1933 to escape from the Nazi threat, before becoming a US citizen, Even though in 1938 the British magazine Picture Post labelled him as ‘the greatest war photographer in the world’, an opinion which was also shared by writer Susan Sontag, Friedmann abhorred the war. In Paris, he met Gerda Taro (1910-1937), a German photographer and journalist who, under her real name, Gerta Pohorylle, became his partner, both professionally and personally. Together they created the pseudonym Robert Capa in an attempt to give the image of a successful American photographer, which consolidated as his alter ego after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), during which Friedmann and Taro joined the Republican side to cover the battle. They were on the front line on several occasions, first in Madrid and finally in Catalonia. After Taro's death in 1937, Friedmann emigrated to the United States, although he came back to Europe to document World War II (1939-1945). In 1947, he promoted the creation of the Magnum Photos agency. His life was cut short in May 1954, when an anti-personnel mine killed him while he was covering the Indochina conflict for Life magazine.
