Robert Capa was a Hungarian photographer born in Budapest, and within his time he began as a darkroom assitant and a journalist photographer; Capa left German because of the rise of Nazi and headed to Paris where he started his career of photojournalist and shared a darkroom with the Henry Cartier-Bresson, one of the greatest figure of candid photographic. He helped Bresson founding the Magum, which turned out to be the most famous world-wide photo agency with a lot of photographer members in it. The influence from masters were shown, as Capa traveled to Spain several times to document the civil war.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrLTpk2eh0EFwVTokv1DQMxZZnYqfpZKjKg_hMFXDW2ET4A5eyRU6Y7ppIKLZZ5auYcBaMMKZ82FwXWQJ9V8JCHK1utVQhwdFP1nkd1Jd1L4lfq2MIRI3OjsLVTYItXVEQ2Ir-DAENd9m/s400/Robert+Capa-Death+of+a+Loyalist+Soldier-1936.jpg) |
Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936) |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIeB64kRmsKfo72hXcNLPPrTFrgj-0gaj1MQiYmEhyphenhyphenJcD03bBHW-KDLjk6fGpmAduMmjWt3a0p4X7kSdLWiK53xn8GHoYpMoazJXfnarLZum90AYB2rBkeAfKfjfbHVtQwiUBAq6_kSAiM/s320/horizontal600.jpg)
Above is publicly considered as the most famous and representative work of Robert Capa:
Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936) . The shocking moment was exceptionally expressive in terms of composition.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NSr_OD7DBZAfDl1i7bXVAeNdqWBK01nj73yPgVKZx8nA702wjwdVo6_lyeYsm7RAcTrjjQl0x-s5Raps9t1LajP8DPTFH4-jODrWf-AT4cp8YHoXPcaDLPS_w4cJaM0vN5R-p_UEk_gX/s320/5834e9dc1162d46d64474106fe0cf103.jpg) |
Taken during D-Day Invasion. |
His pictures taken in the extremely earthy environment have shown a great level of realism with the stunning impact of the moment, as Picture Post titled him "the greatest war photographer in the world." I think the pictures itself are typical examples of documenting reality, but more importantly, the moment he captured in most of his pieces reminds of Bresson's 'decisive moment' theory; so to speak, a decisive moment is a photographer's intuition of capturing the exact moment that could be used as a photo. Capa's body of work express the exact idea of a war photojournalist, which is documenting and recording the real war lives, but meanwhile the impact and the power in his picture is also a evidence showing his great understanding of craftsmanship in photography, that is, to capture the most representative moment from those massive moments in real life.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Svi-qnhjgWWLs26zcbzRA0-cLtU87tcp-gVsnIawgXHnIgodG6RF9yxMYYvJTEY3pE_wC9eoQxvpuOu0eOLChV9DwwO4k55Qh5BN0wtxqqdfir3YG00BGA1VWm_OkOapNbew_kcymChr/s400/amagnumig_10311535863.jpg) |
Captured German Soldier in Normandy |