ARTH1100 TU/TH History of Photography S2018

Capa’s Death of a Loyalist Soldier has been a big controversy ever since it had been published. The photograph has been accused of being fake and staged. The analysis by Capa’s biographer, Richard Whelan, has argued that it is not fake or staged, but it is real. When reading Whelan’s argument about this photograph was convincing. As I was reading, he describes on how the two men are different and shows another photo of the men with some of their comrades. I do not think that this photograph is staged because Capa is putting his life on the line while traveling with these soldiers just to get a few shots of them during the war. I think that it is just pure coincidence for the two men to fall in the same spot. Whelan had spoken with the chief homicide detective of Memphis Police Department, Captain Robert L. Franks, about the photographs and asked if he can give Whelan a reading of the two photographs. Franks talks about how the photographs are not staged. He also states that the photograph is real because if it was to be staged the hand of the person would not be curled and when a person is falling they would have a reflex where the hand would not be curled but stretched out to have a much softer landing. I think that authenticity does matter because to capture something like this cannot be staged.

I think the photograph of the “Falling Soldier” was not staged. Robert Capa would go to extreme lengths to take a good photo. He would risk his life to capture a photograph that would speak to everyone. I think people think it’s staged because of the soldier’s spread of body looked exaggerated and how the gun is facing away from him looks weird, but really every soldier falls a different way when being hit by a bullet. The soldier’s facial expression looks real, you can see the bending of his knee that when he got shot and was falling, the soldier tried to save his fall in a way. I don’t think Capa would be so cruel to stage this, because nothing about the death of a soldier is funny. There’s also another photo of another soldier falling that I saw in this article, and it looks real too. It just shows that depending on where you get hit it can determine how you fall. Also the angle matters when taking a photo and I just think Capa did a great job at capturing real life things happening during war. The D-Day photograph, that’s real and it shows that Capa takes his career seriously and no matter the danger it takes and risk it takes to capture something real and in the moment, Capa will do it, so I don’t think he staged the “Falling Soldier.”

The death of a falling solider was a controversial photograph because people believed it was stages and there are others that don’t believe it was stages. I found Richard’s argument convincing in a way but then again, I don’t believe it’s true. After reading the article I still don’t believe this photograph was staged. I don’t believe it was staged because he would risk his life for his photographs and in the article, Richard writes that people confused Capa for another photographer for staging the photographs of the solider in war because there was little action going on. Also, the solider was actually dead, if it was staged he would have been alive after the photograph was published. I believe that authenticity does not matter.

Robert Capa’s photo, Death of a Loyalist Solider is renown to be the greatest war photograph ever made. In the article by Richard Whelan he confirms that the photo was taken in the battle at Cerro Muriano, Robert Capa was present at that battle, and the man in the photo, Federico Borrell García, was indeed dead; however, for some reason there is still controversy behind the legitimacy of the photo. I personally don’t believe this photo was staged. Most of my reasons are opinionated but not unreasonable. Firstly Robert Capa was mainly known as a war photographer who took countless war photos all renown; however, for some reason this specific one is very controversial. He’s known for putting himself in danger for the sake of getting good photographs, for example he is also well known for his photographs of D – day. It doesn’t make much sense to go through all that risk to end up staging some photographs.  If he did stage photographs, not only does it put into question the legitimacy of his other photographs but it devalues the risk and work he would put into his non staged photographs. Also even though it’s been confirmed that Federico did die at the battle, Philip Knightley in 1998 argued that it was possible that it was staged then he died anyway. In my opinion it’s possible but very unlikely. Federico was the only casualty at Cerro Murano. It’s more unlikely that Capa staged the photo with the soldier and despite the odds, the solider was both the only casualty and Capa’s pick for a staged photo than Capa not staging the photo.

‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ by the Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist, Robert Capa is regarded by many as one of the greatest war photographs in history. However, not long after the photograph was published, a spark of controversy started the fire of doubt and questioning on whether the photograph was staged. Out of love for controversy, I research beyond the article, only to find out that Robert Capa’s biographer named Richard Whelan who published his biography in 1985, along with the fact that the soldier, whose name is (Federico Garcia), was falling backward despite running down-hill, this made me take the position that the photograph was staged. In addition to that, the photograph Vu which was captured of a different soldier in the same exact location, same frame, same background and with no other corpses in either photograph this made me certain that it was not authentic, but I could be wrong and I am opened to changing to perspective if confronted with a more convincing claim than the ones used in the article. Despite my position, I do not think the authenticity of the photograph matters because of the noble anti-war message it delivers and the fact that it displays the how the lives of the millions of soldiers who have fallen and continue to fall are wasted with a bullet. Lastly, I personally do not think it is the greatest war photograph, neither back then nor now because much better pictures were taken around that time and continue to be taken since.

As I was reading the article I was actually changing my mind from, the picture is staged to the picture is not staged. At the end I came to the conclusion that the photo is not staged. I agree with all the points that Robert Whelan made. It was also very helpful to have the opinions of people who think the photo is totally fake. I believe that the photographs are not staged because who would want to stage war photographs.  The reason why this photograph doesn’t seem staged is because what photographer in that time and in a war would want to risk their life’s just to take a stage picture. The fact that some people think that soldiers would pretend to die just so a picture can come out “cool” is completely ridiculous. And I also think that weather it was staged or not it will still be seen as one of the greatest war photographs out there.

The photograph named ‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ by Robert Capa was a great piece of art work from my point of view. This picture had been recognized as the greatest war photograph of all time, and I do completely agree with that. This photograph in particular had been pin pointed and received a lot of controversy over the years. While observing this picture, I cannot come to a conclusion that whether this picture is staged or not. If it was staged, it was done at its best, with high professionalism. Robert Capa had magical hands that could manipulate camera shutters in a timely manner. I like to believe that this picture is not staged, only because of the timing of the shot. It was such a perfectly timed shot, and Capa deserves the credit for that work. Robert Whelan’s arguments were not that convincing to me. The main reason that Robert states that is many soldiers were spotted dead at the same exact spot. That might be coincidental, from my point of view. Photography is an art, and for art works, I don’t think that authenticity matters. Its how you present the work, not the way you did. Only the final product counts. This photograph is worth appreciation, regardless of questioning its authenticity.

The photo of the Loyalist Soldier by Robert Capa has been a big point of controversy over the years. I personally cant really decide whether it is staged or not because both sides of the argument make sense to me. After reading Robert Whelans arguments I dont think a lot of his points are really valid. The biggest red flag that was given to this photo being staged was the situation of the other soldier being killed and falling in the same exact spot. that comes of extremely suspicious or extremely coincidental. If we were to find a way to know that it was staged then I think it would have to lose that spot of being one of the best war photos ever taken. unfortunately i think its something that we wont ever really know because it was a long time ago and we weren’t there to see it all go down. if i really wanted to take away from this historical photo i will say its staged but i have grown to  have a respect for Capa and his bravery for being out there so i think it was a authentic photo.

I believe that the arguments against Capa’s photo of The Falling Soldier and their accusations were not convincing. They just had used the knowledge of Capa’s death to use as a way to poke holes in his photo and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself in the fact of his authenticity of his photo. But they were people that defended his photo on his behalf and stated ways that he was there. I do not believe that the photos would be staged, I believe that Capa was a serious photographer and wanted the true sense of getting the good photos. I do believe on cases that authenticity matters, only because in today’s technology, it’s quite easy to manipulate so much of photos that it becomes a challenge to figure out if the photos are authentic or not. But back then, staged or not, they didn’t have the tools that we had today to manipulate photos. I know that his photos should be taken serious as photos that were taken right there because there have been events where people have been at the front of something tragic. Recently, with the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the students took videos and possibly photos of the situation and you can see how it’s pretty obvious that the videos/photos wouldn’t need to be authentic because of all the media reports and such. But looking back at Capa, his photos are, in my opinion, very real and people that would have been there could vogue on his behalf and defend his photos.

In reading this highly detailed and convincing analysis by Richard Whelan I believe The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa is real. I personally don’t believe that all the things Whelan brings up in his analysis that is needed to pull such as photo off like this could have happened if it wasn’t real. A couple of things that Whelan brings up is identifying the falling soldier as a man named Federico Borrell Garcia who was indeed killed on the day this photo was published, September 5, 1936. Having this information shows you how things fall together and make sense. Not to mention the cartridge cases the falling soldier was wearing is the gear that Garcia would have worn because he’s part of the Alcoy militia regiment that had craftsmen who made these type of cartridge cases. These two factors are just the start of why I find this photo to be authentic. I believe the way the body is getting ready to fall down onto the ground shows how realistic the photo appears. Like stated in his analysis I would have thought the soldiers reflexes to kick in if this photo was staged. You would have saw his hands kind of stretch out and extend because its a natural human reflex. His argument is very convincing, through the many points he brings up as well the inputs of others who were actually there in 1936 brings all the more credibility to what he is saying.