Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936, published in Life Magazine 1937
At the age of 23, Robert Capa took a photograph that many have labeled the greatest war photograph of all time. Taken during the Spanish Civil War, the renown of Capa’s photograph, Falling Soldier or Death of a Loyalist Soldier, reverberated around the world as it was published and republished in contemporary news magazines. However, Capa’s photo has been shadowed by controversy, including accusations of fakery. Read an analysis on the image by Capa’s biographer, Robert Whelan, on the authenticity of the photograph. Do you find his arguments convincing? Do you think Capa’s photograph is staged or not? And do you think its authenticity matters?
Richard Whelan’s discussion of Capa’s photograph
<em>As noted in the last discussion topic, there are no more time limits to submit your blog posts this semester. Please make sure you submit all your posts by December 15th.</em>
Robert Whelan’s arguments are, in my opinion, convincing. Especially in the face of such a lack of evidence to suggest that Capa’s photograph was staged. Whelan “provides a definitive refutation of Knightley’s absurd suggestion, that ‘Federico could have posed for the photograph before he was killed.’” Knightley also said, “The famous photograph is almost certainly a fake — Capa posed it.” While Whelan builds an argument, provides facts, and expert opinion, Knightley provides his personal opinions to make a case against Capa. It’s really not so hard to decide who to side with. After reading Whelan’s arguments, to me they sound convincing, and am leaning towards the not staged column. Does its authenticity matters? Hmm, that is a very hard question. And I would have to say Yes, and NO. To tell the narrative or the story of the war, NO, its authenticity does not matter. The truth is that the photograph “Falling Soldier,” compared to the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, can be described as PG rated. However, I presume that a daily war is waged in the minds of documentary photographers every time they pick up their camera; do I simply record what I see, or do I stage a photograph and maybe get the next best picture the world has ever seen. I would assume that for photographers authenticity does matter, besides, what are the chances of being in that perfect moment, to have the camera pointed at the perfect spot, for the action to occur on that perfect moment in time? Thus, I would have to also agree with photographers that authenticity does matter.
After reading the analysis on the image by Robert Whelan, I am covinced that this image by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War Falling Soldier or Death of a Loyalist Soldier is not “staged” or “fake.” Robert Whelan talks about the placement of the hand of the wounded soldier and its almost like he is dead “It is nearly impossible for any conscious person to resist the reflex impulse to brace his fall by flexing his hand strongly backward at the wrist and extending his fingers out straight.” For example if someone pushes you and you are falling down, first thing you start to think about is grabbing something or putting your hands down to the ground. in the analysis Phillip Knightley says “Federico could have posed for the photograph before he was killed.” well that is a possibility but i believe this photograph is not staged. I think the authenticity does matter because Capa was a great photographer who loved getting close to the action and capturing some great photos, but if its fake then why try to fake it. The allegations of this photo being fake affects Capa’s reputation and I think this is a great war photo regardless it being staged or not.
Whether this photo was staged or not, to me it shows what war really brings to everyone involved, which is death and pain their is nothing glamorous about war.