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Robert Capa "Endre Friedman"
Endre Friedman was the most famous and wide regarded best ever war photographer. Born in Hungary in 1913, before moving to Berlin, witnessing the rise of Hitler, which made him relocate once more to Paris. There he met another talented photographer named Gerta Pohorylle. Together they produced work under the alias, "Robert Capa."
Although Gerta contributed to the early work of Endre Friedman, she soon separated to work under her own alias of "Gerda Taro." They continued to work, but to publish separately under different alias. With Endre Friedman continuing to work under the alias of "Robert Capa".
During his career "Robert Capa" photographed 5 major conflicts. The Spanish Civil war, The second Sino Japanese war, World War 2 in Europe, 1948 Arab -Israeli war and the first Indochina war.
For his photography work in world war 2, Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Robert Capa the Medal of Freedom.
His most famous work is probably the American forces landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Capa was on the landings and he achieved a record of the events on that beach that are a very accurate representation of the horrors of war.
The most famous of the images is the image above of solitary soldier amongst many crawling through the sea trying to make land, through landing traps and dead bodies of his comrades in arms.
This image shows movement and the confusion of the event and what the soldier must be going through. The use of blurred movement almost takes the viewer inside the head of this very young man. The grain and confusion makes me feel I am on that beach. The viewer cannot be anything but amazed that a shot like this was actually taken, whilst lying on a beach under fire armed with nothing but a camera.
The image is perfectly framed centre for the young soldier, with enough in the background(even though blurred) to paint the image of what he is going through.
Therefore it is not just the use of blur and grain to create movement, but his subject choice inadvertly was chosen for him. Houston Riley was in the water and took 4 bullets to his shoulder, he was dragged out by 2 men , one had a camera around his neck. The image was taken between the man being in the water and dragged to safety by Capa. Riley survived and 2 of the 4 bullets remained in his shoulder. So there be a case where part of this images effect were accidental or more accurately caused inadvertently from the fact he was trying to save a young soldiers life and his own whilst dodging bullets. I come to this conclusion because there is obveious camera shake as the whole image is blurred, not just the slow movement of the soldier.
However a great image taken by an incredibly brave guy. The other soldiers were conscripted and orderd, he was a civilian who volunteered for his craft and unlike the other photographers of the day, carried his own film up the beach head, where apparently all the other 5-6 photographers handed their film over and they were never processed.
www.magnumphoto.com
If we look at this image, centrally focused on the young lad in nthe centre.There is movement caused by the landing craft but the overall image is fairly sharp, consider its age and circumstances.
www.magnumphoto.com
Like the initial image this is totally affected by camera movement. Based on the circumstances of the image, running onto a beach under fire. Therefore I believe the images are the result of the photographers situation not some camera setting pre-planned to create movement.
Taken in the similar circumstances as the top image has produced the same an image with the same amount of realism and fear for the viewer. The main difference between the 2 images and in my opinion why it has become more famous is purely down to the fact that the soldier in image 1 as a face and we relate to a real person. In the third image the troops are "faceless" which in some ways de-personalises the viewer from the image.
However it must be said amazing images from an incredible human being that risked his life to show the world what the young American soldiers sufferd and loss in retaking Europe.