Description

Following a Japanese air raid in Hankou, Hubei, China. July-September 1938. .

Open Edition Silver Gelatin Print

Estate-Stamped

For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner.

Robert Capa
© Robert Capa | Magnum Photos
Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson made their first forays in China in the 1930s and '40s, respectively. Since then, Magnum’s global roster of photographers has made in-depth visual investigations, resulting in a vast Chinese archive that documents the country and its people, as well as the changes they have witnessed over the last nine decades.
Born Andre Friedmann to Jewish parents in Budapest in 1913, Robert Capa studied political science at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Berlin. Driven out of the country by the threat of a Nazi regime, he settled in Paris in 1933. After his companion, Gerda Taro, was killed during the Spanish Civil War, Capa travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New York a year later. Often referred to as the ‘greatest war photographer’, Capa documentation of the Second World War—including the landing of American troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge—have become genre-defining. In 1947, Capa founded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert. On 25 May 1954, he was photographing for Life in Thai-Binh, Indochina, when he stepped on a landmine and was killed.
© Robert Capa | Magnum Photos

Get Magnum news and updates directly to your inbox

Stay in touch
Learn about online and offline exhibitions, photography fairs, gallery events, plus fine print news and activities, on a monthly basis.
Get fortnightly tips and advice articles, find out about the latest workshops, free online events and on-demand courses.
Stay up to date every Thursday with Magnum photographers’ activities, new work, stories published on the Magnum website, and the latest offerings from our shop.