Louis Tejada: Robert Capa’s Death of a Loyalist Soldier

The photograph of Robert Capa’s “Death of a Loyalist Soldier” in 1936 is a powerful photograph because it was labeled as one of the greatest war photograph that was ever taken throughout the years of photography. However, the photograph has also had controversy surrounding it because of the photograph being staged and other things. After reading the discussion of Richard Whelan on the Capa’s photograph, I found Whelan’s arguments convincing because at one point he talked about Robert Capa’s photograph and comparing it to one of a soldier wearing a one piece boiler suit and how the soldier has the straps running from his shoulders to the cartridge boxes that cross at the center of his chest. Also, how the soldier is holding his gun firmly as his arms twist behind his back. In addition, Richard Whelan talked to other witnesses who were with Robert Capa at the time that he was in Spain taking this iconic photograph which included O.D. Gallagher, Herbert Matthews,  Franz Borkenau, Phillip Knightley and others. From my point of view, I believe that the photograph was staged because of the way the loyalist soldier still has his gun pointing away as the person shot the soldier and also the way that the soldier’s are bent make me think it was staged because the hill that the loyalist soldier was standing on was not that steep and you could see the grass as well. Furthermore, you can see the shadow of the loyalist soldier which is also the reason why I believe this photograph was staged. In the end, authenticity does matter in this photograph because it is labeled as one of the greatest war photograph taken and it showed what war was like at that time.