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Capa's famous Spanish Civil War faked, new evidence claims
Ed Harris21 Jul 2009
A famous Spanish Civil War photograph which shows a Republican soldier at the apparent moment he was shot dead was in fact staged, accordimg to fresh evidence.
The authenticity of Robert Capa's classic image of war has been disputed since he took the picture in September 1936, and regular efforts
have been made to establish exactly where it was taken, and who the falling fighter is.
The latest claims to undermine the authenticity of the famed war photographer's image are made by a Spanish newspaper, Barcelona-based El Periodico, which carried out a study of the photograph taken in the third month of the war.
“Capa photographed his soldier at a location where there was no fighting,” the paper wrote.
The so called “falling soldier” photo was not
taken near Cerro Muriano in the southern Andalusia region, as has long been claimed, but about 30 miles away near the town of Espejo,
the newspaper said.
To back its claim it published Capa's photograph and others taken at the same location as well as pictures taken recently near Espejo which show that the landscape corresponds to that of the 1936 image.
The photo - one of the most emblematic war photographs of all time - has long sparked controversy, with Capa supporters defending it as
authentic but some critics saying it was too perfect not to have been staged.
El Periodico said it based its study on an exhibition - launched in New York in 2007 and now in Barcelona - of 150 photographs taken by Capa in conflicts around the world during the
1930s and 1940s.
Capa was born in Budapest in 1913, and went on to become of one of the most famous photojournalists.
Reader views (2)
There has always been controversy surrounding this Photo, however, I thought that the Militia mans family had authenticated it a couple of years ago.
What is important is that we remember that 73 years ago exactly, democracy was trampled by fascism, and newspapers with the same politics as the Standard, triumphantly supported the rising by Mola, Sanjuro and of course Franco. possibly a million people were murdered by the fascists with the conivance of the Tory Government, it was ever thus.
One should also not forget that Capa was one of the finest, if not the finest war photographer, His iconic photos of the SCW did so much to raise awareness of the struggle against fascism. Capa also took the only photos on D Day, of which only 13 survive.
Capa died after stepping on a landmine in French Indochina (Vietnam), in 1956
- Kerry, Purley, 21/07/2009 12:03
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All the world's a stage...
- Bloke, London, 21/07/2009 11:43
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