53 Facts About Robert Capa

Robert Capa is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

Robert Capa witnessed Adolf Hitler's rise to power, which led him to move to Paris, where he met and began to work with his professional partner Gerda Taro, and they began to publish their work separately.

Robert Capa documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, and the liberation of Paris.

Robert Capa was killed when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam.

Robert Capa was born Endre Erno Friedmann to the Jewish family of Julia and Dezso Friedmann in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, on October 22,1913.

Robert Capa's mother, Julianna Henrietta Berkovits was a native of Nagykapos and Dezso Friedmann came from the Transylvanian village of Csucsa.

Robert Capa moved to Berlin, where he enrolled at Berlin University where he worked part-time as a darkroom assistant for income and then became a staff photographer for the German photographic agency, Dephot.

Robert Capa's first published photograph was of Leon Trotsky making a speech in Copenhagen on "The Meaning of the Russian Revolution" in 1932.

Robert Capa proposed and Taro refused, but they continued their involvement.

Robert Capa shared a darkroom with French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, with whom he would later co-found the Magnum Photos cooperative.

From 1936 to 1939, Robert Capa worked in Spain, photographing the Spanish Civil War, along with Taro and David Seymour.

Robert Capa had been returning from a photographic assignment covering the Battle of Brunete.

Robert Capa accompanied then-journalist and author Ernest Hemingway to photograph the war, which Hemingway would later describe in his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Robert Capa sent his images to Life magazine, which published some of them in its May 23,1938, issue.

At the start of World War II, Robert Capa was in New York City, having moved there from Paris to look for work, and to escape Nazi persecution.

Robert Capa first photographed for Collier's Weekly, before switching to Life after he was fired by Collier's.

Robert Capa was the only "enemy alien" photographer for the Allies.

On October 7,1943, Robert Capa was in Naples with Life reporter Will Lang Jr.

Robert Capa subsequently stated that he took 106 pictures, but later discovered that all but 11 had been destroyed.

In 2016, John G Morris, who was picture editor at the London bureau of Life in 1944, agreed that it was more likely that Capa captured 11 images in total on D-Day.

The 11 prints were included in Life magazine's issue on June 19,1944, with captions written by magazine staffers, as Robert Capa did not provide Life with notes or a verbal description of what they showed.

Robert Capa took photographs during the Allied invasion of France in 1944.

In 1947 Robert Capa traveled to the Soviet Union with his friend, the American writer John Steinbeck.

Robert Capa suggested they go there together and collaborate on a book, with Robert Capa documenting the war-torn nation with photographs.

In 1947, Robert Capa founded the cooperative venture Magnum Photos in Paris with Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Vandivert, David Seymour, and George Rodger.

Robert Capa toured Israel during its founding and while it was being attacked by neighboring states.

Robert Capa took the numerous photographs that accompanied Irwin Shaw's book, Report on Israel.

In 1953 he joined screenwriter Truman Capote and director John Huston in Italy where Robert Capa was assigned to photograph the making of the film, Beat the Devil.

Robert Capa acted in the film Temptation, playing a supporting role.

Allegedly, Robert Capa received the part after visiting his friend Charles Korvin on the set.

Robert Capa claimed that he could play the part better than the actor who had originally been cast, and after speaking with the director was cast in the final film.

Robert Capa accompanied a French regiment located in Thai Binh Province with two Time-Life journalists, John Mecklin and Jim Lucas.

On May 25,1954, the regiment was passing through a dangerous area under fire when Robert Capa decided to leave his jeep and go up the road to photograph the advance.

Robert Capa was killed when he stepped on a landmine near the road.

Robert Capa was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, where his parents were tailors.

Robert Capa's mother was a successful fashion shop owner, and his father was a tailor in her shop.

Robert Capa had two brothers: a younger brother, photographer Cornell Robert Capa and an older brother, Laszlo Friedmann.

Robert Capa died a in 1935 of rheumatic fever and was buried next to his father in the Kozma Utca Jewish Cemetery.

At the age of 18, Robert Capa moved to Vienna, later relocated to Prague, and finally settled in Berlin: all cities that were centers of artistic and cultural ferment in this period.

Robert Capa studied at the Deutsche Hochschule fur Politik from 1931 until 1933, when the Nazi Party instituted restrictions on Jews and banned them from universities.

Robert Capa then moved to Paris and in 1934 met Gerda Pohorylle, a German Jewish refugee.

Robert Capa travelled with Capa to Spain in 1936 intending to document the Spanish Civil War.

In July 1937, Robert Capa traveled briefly to Paris while Gerda remained in Madrid.

Robert Capa, who was reportedly engaged to her, was deeply shocked and never married.

Robert Capa called the redheaded Elaine "Pinky," and wrote about her in his war memoir, Slightly Out of Focus.

Some months later, Robert Capa became the lover of the actress Ingrid Bergman, who was touring in Europe to entertain American soldiers.

The relationship ended in the summer of 1946 when Robert Capa traveled to Turkey.

Robert Capa founded the International Fund for Concerned Photography in 1966.

Robert Capa's work came from the trenches as opposed to the more arms-length perspective that was the precedent.

Robert Capa is credited with coining the term Generation X Robert Capa used it as a title for a photo-essay about the young people reaching adulthood immediately after the Second World War.

In 1976 Robert Capa was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

Robert Capa participated in the demonstrations against the Miklos Horthy regime.

In 1931, just before his first photo was published, Robert Capa was arrested by the Hungarian secret police, beaten, and jailed for his radical political activity.