Stephanie Aguayo

Homework #3

In the controversial 1936 photograph taken by Robert Capa, “The Fallen Solider” in the Spanish civil war, many people questioned the authenticity of this photograph. In the article of In Robert Capa: In Love and War by Robert Whelan he argues to come to a conclusion of how accurate the evidence is of this image. As I continued to read this article I found that the “The Fallen Solider” was convincing because the position of the solider was described as, “The Fact that the fingers are somewhat cured toward the palm clearly indicates that the man’s muscles have gone limp and that he is already dead.” This statement appeared to be convincing evidence to me and that this could not have been staged. Despite that, weather or not this photograph is authentic does not matter, simply because during that era capturing a man getting killed in a photograph was unseen before. “The Fallen Solider” photograph indicates the brutality of war and shows a man dying for his country. The image sent a message and gave the visual to civilians of what was actually occurring during the Spanish war—or war in general.