Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography is a brilliant portrayal of the career of the great war photographer who, at the time of his death in 1954, had only one wish: to be an unemployed war photographer. "It is not always easy" he said, "to stand aside and be unable to do anything except record the suffering."
Born in 1913 to a Jewish family in Budapest, Endre Friedmann left home at 18 for Germany where he studied journalism and political science and worked in a photo agency darkroom. In 1933, Friedmann went to Paris where he shared a darkroom with Henri Cartier-Bresson and lived with Gerda Taro, also a photographer. Together they contrived the name and image "Robert Capa, famous American photographer".
Capa made several trips to document the Spanish Civil War, where he took the seminal image, "Death of a Loyalist Soldier" for which he was heralded as "the greatest war photographer in the world".
By the start of World War II, Capa was in New York freelancing for LIFE, Time, and other publications. He went abroad with the US army to record Allied involvement in WWII, including D-Day on Omaha beach. Disembarking from a landing boat, he took the only images of the invasion. He went on to cover the war in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Berlin, London and Paris. Even now, it is the D-Day images that marked him as the world's greatest war photographer.
Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography, written in the first person, follows his personal and professional life and through his eyes, the social upheaval and earth-shattering wars of the 20th century. It shows his intimate life and his relationships with the day's larger-than-life personalities: Ingrid Bergman, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and many others.
Sepia watercolors wash the book in the fog of war and recall Capa's generation on the cusp of color film. They show his professional work, his personal battles, his victories and struggles, and his legacy: the founding of the Magnum, a cooperative photo agency which gives photographers control of their work.
In 1954, having sworn off war photography but in need of money, he left to cover his fifth war, in Indochina. Driven by his conviction that "if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," he was with a French patrol when he stepped on a landmine and was killed, camera in hand.
About the Author
Florent Silloray is the illustrator of six books published in French, and the author and illustrator of The Book of Roger, a graphic novel adaptation of the memoirs of a soldier who spent World War II in a prison camp.
Industry Reviews
French author and illustrator Silloray offers a quiet, simmering take on Robert Capa (1913-54), one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. Renowned for his war photography, the Budapest-born artist once said, "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough," and he lived these words, often crawling in the grass next to soldiers in combat, documenting the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and many other major conflicts. Haunted by these encounters, Capa continued to push himself, seeking to capture the reality of some of the most brutal scenes in history. This biography focuses on the latter half of Capa's life, beginning with his relationship with Gerda Taro, who was herself a fearless photographer, and ending with Capa's death while on assignment in Indochina. Throughout, Silloray shows Capa reworking his own image to be successful, struggling with the deaths of loved ones, grappling with the concepts of mortality vs. mediocrity, and making the ultimate sacrifice for his art. Sepia-toned watercolor-washed illustrations, arranged in smaller panel grids, give the work a gritty, dirty look as Capa moves through the dust to get the next shot. A fine volume that brings to life a great artist who wanted to show people what was happening in the world around them. For fans of war photography and artist biographies.--Ryan Claringbole "Library Journal" (12/28/2017 12:00:00 AM)
Beautifully drawn.--Rachel Cooke "Observer UK" (12/3/2017 12:00:00 AM)
His monologue is delivered in a small, faux hand-lettered typeface that captions neatly squared-off sepia panels of boudoirs and battlefronts drawn in ink with white highlights. Celebrities and associates are recognizable. There's somber, distant feel; but some sequences, such as the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach where Capa, cures in English and his native Hungarian struggles to get his shots as troops are dying on every side, are nightmarishly vivid. None of Capa's photos are reproduced here but Silloray adds visual references to many of the more iconic ones.--Eve Datisman "Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's and Young Adult Literature" (1/6/2018 12:00:00 AM)
The great war photographer revisits public triumphs and private tragedies over the course of a tumultuous career. Speaking in the first person, Capa shows how he earned his reputation on front lines from the Spanish Civil War to the French defeat in Southeast Asia and on other major assignments along the way. In between he recalls personal and professional struggles, hobnobbing with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, and multiple affairs, most notably with fellow photographer Gerda Taro and Ingrid Bergman. His monologue is delivered in a small, faux hand-lettered typeface that captions neatly squared-off sepia panels of boudoirs and battlefronts drawn in ink with white highlights... Though none of Capa's photos are reproduced here, Silloray adds visual references to many of the more iconic ones; readers who go on to seek out the originals may be surprised at how many are part of our enduring cultural legacy.-- "Kirkus" (8/27/2017 12:00:00 AM)
Worthy of a place in any high school biography collection.--Maggie Knapp "School Library Journal" (11/1/2017 12:00:00 AM)
