While Richard Whelan does have a vested interest in Capa’s photo being authentic (as he is Capa’s biographer), I do find his argument very convincing. It seems extremely plausible to me that the incident happened as Whelan describes. The ironic part is that if this is true, then it did not really happen in the heat of battle as the picture suggests, but rather as an unfortunate incident as a result of not being mindful enough while posing for a picture. In the end, to me it does not really matter if the picture is authentic or not. This picture was taken at a time when the only access that people had to war was written accounts and photos. If it is not real, then certainly numerous similar events took place during this war. The important part to me is that this picture gave people a sense of what was occurring during the Spanish Civil War, and allowed them to connect more personally with the conflict.
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I do find the last few paragraphs convincing that this was not a staged death. The way the dead soldiers hands gone limp, and an actor would not necessarily know how to hold his body parts to look that realistic (like he is about to die). An actor would need to know anatomy and how the body reacts at the time of death. The soldier used his reflexes and muscles let go of life at the moment he was shot.
The photo can very well be staged, because there is no one in the backround. When one thinks of war, you think of lots of chaos and soldiers and this scene seems calm all around.
At this point it doesn’t matter whether it’s authentic or not. It is a photo that we can learn from. It is a photo that we can use in the classroom and dissect and have discussions on. History of photography is important. The history that this photo represents can teach us about the experiences of what war was like for them and how easy death fell upon the brave soldiers.
I agree with you Richard, it’s sad that how many people were killed during the Spanish war but yet this photo released the drama by accusing that it was staged. Many people like that victim was shot every minute and Robert Capa was lucky enough to capture that photo the exact second he was shot. This proves to the people that during the war the people were getting shot Back to back.
Yasmin, if people were getting shot so often, as they were, then why wasn’t Capa shot next? there was no one else around the solider and if there were someone shooting at him, then Capa would have been the next target. Im not going against saying the war wasn’t a bad one, something just doesn’t seem right about this photo. It doesn’t completely make sense.
I agree with R.Fleming. It’s true if Robert Capa was there at the scene taking photographs, why wasn’t he shot next? As well as how come there aren’t anyone else in the photo. The shooter wouldn’t be able to shoot far range. So to me, the photo definitely looks staged.