Talk:Robert Capa

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Contents 1 Death of a loyalist soldier 2 Capa's political believes 3 Capa's arms on DDay 4 Born in Hungary? 5 missing information 6 trivia removed 7 Excessive detail? 8 Death of a loyalist soldier 9 Mine 10 First or Second Assault Wave?

[edit] Death of a loyalist soldier

the technical talk about this photo, seems way too technical for an article about Cappa the photographer. Maybe the photo deserves a page on its own.

[edit] Capa's political believes

i miss some information on Capa's left wing attitudes. he deeply disliked capitalism and of course fascism. iirc he was a militant in his youth and he continued his work with some perspectives of a better & peaceful & socialist world. however interesting the angle-of-the-sun might be, we could do greater justice to the man in remembering his dreams and what he lived for.

Sinzov 07:37, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Capa's arms on DDay

It says that Capa was armed with just cameras during the D-Day invasion. If he was in the first wave, wouldn't he be supplied with at least a pistol? It seems hard to believe because of the danger and possibility of combat he was in.--Exander 07:24, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Hard to believe, but true - no weapon at all.

Xdamr 09:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Born in Hungary?

I'm watching a documentary on TV right now - they say he was actually born in Paris, France, but grew up in Budapest, Hungary.

According to his brother, Cornell Capa, "Endre Erno Friedmann was born on October 22, 1913 in Budapest." Also, the most recent bio of Capa, "Blood and Champagne," states that Capa was born Endre Friedmann in Budapest, Hungary, in 1913. See also, "The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World." Same date and place of birth.

Capa did eventually live in Paris, but as an adult. What is the documentary which gave his birthplace as Paris?

[edit] missing information

I think it should be mentioned that Capa worked together with the famous writer John Steinbeck. They went to USSR in 1947 and Capa took the photographs for the book A Russian Journal.

[edit] trivia removed

An editor removed the trivia; I don't disagree, but it may be that some of it can be worked into a longer more detailed article at some point. So I'm listing here for easier finding:

• The blurred shots he took during D-Day informed the look Janusz Kaminski used for Saving Private Ryan.
• The song "Kamikaze Cappa" was written by the Austrian pop star Falco in 1986 as a tribute to the late Robert Capa.
• Apart from his reputation as a photographer, Capa was known as a gambler and socialite. One noted affair was with Ingrid Bergman - only publicized many years later in her autobiography.
• During his lifetime Capa befriended many Hollywood icons, writers, and artists such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, John Steinbeck, John Huston, Howard Hawks, and Humphrey Bogart.

[edit] Excessive detail?

It seems to me the paragraph added by Desertfax is a great deal of unreferenced detail, possibly OR, about one photograph, not even the man being discussed. The header "Spanish Civil War" is dominated by a complex analysis of a single, albeit significant, photograph. Any objection to my removing it, or greatly abbreviating it. It could be copied to the talk for incorporation elsewhere if appropriate? Goodnightmush^Talk 01:25, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

It is by tradition known that the Borrell Garcia picture was made at Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936, about 1300 Local Zone Time for Spain, this being GMT + 1 hour. The soldier's vertical image, his shadow and the line from his head to its silhouette graphically describe an equilateral triangle. This feature is sufficient to configure and work up a two triangles system containing Garcia supposedly having run sidelong the direction of the sun appearing southwestwards at about 68 degrees azimuth. The line interconnecting Garcia's head and its silhouette on the hillside with [out of picture] trenches has a computed 30 degrees inclination with regard to the horizontal plane which is astronomically parallel to the celestial horizon. When subsequently sun's altitude over Cerro Muriano is checked for 1300 local time, 1200 GMT, it is found to be 59 degrees. It is thence a reasonable assumption that the picture has been taken earlier, or conversely later on the day. For the respective time points we find 0843 and 1655 Local Zone Time [the Time Equation for simplicity deleted ]. In 2002 Richard Whelan in a biographical article of Capa states that Garcia fell in the presence of witnesses as the first of two identified soldiers at the same place at 0500 p.m. in the immediate vicinity of trenches on a slope of Mount Las Malaguenas. The 1655 Local Time solution should therefore be considered representative. If eventually, sun's computed altitude for 1655 LZT over Cerro Muriano is established to be 30 degrees for sun's 7 degrees declination, it is clear that the about 1655 LZT point of time of the recording exactly matches the helio–geographical configuration of Cerro Muriano in coordinates 4 deg 47'–W ; 38 deg–N for September 6, 1936, at about 1555 GMT with sun's azimuth N–247–W. This renders the picture suspicious in a minor sense as far as only the time point is concerned for a for practice zero difference [actually 6 minutes with application of the Time Equation of [+]1 minute for September 5] with Whelan's conclusions and a difference of 4 hours for the traditional point of time, both differences unavoidably suffering some inherent inaccurateness due to graphical measuring . Whatever the outcome of precise timekeeping might be, it does not injure the authenticity of the picture as a live recording made at about 1600 GMT on September 6, 1936.

I've removed it and brought it here for anyone interested to clean up, reference, and reincorporate where it belongs. Goodnightmush^Talk 02:54, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Beware the name is desertfax / One Wikipedia heading on this article says : "..detailed guide to articles on the history of photography on Wikipedia.." Sometimes details require quantitative research since a problem is not simpler than its difficulty is. 84.80.66.78 (talk) 21:21, 19 November 2007 (UTC) desertfax Nov 07 .

[edit] Death of a loyalist soldier

Jeffpw edited the caption of Death of a loyalist soldier to Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death. In his edit summary, Jeffpw said that his change was made to be the "actual title of photograph." Without any documentation of this change, I find the new title to be cumbersome and not as accurate. A quick Google search of the new title finds 186 references. However, a check of the title "Death of a loyalist soldier" find 1,130 references. On this basis, I reverted the change and suggest that it be discussed here. To add to the discussions, I would also point editors to the NY Times article of today that replicated the photo in question. The Times caption?: "The Falling Soldier," a title that garners some 1,390 Google hits. TheMindsEye (talk) 01:09, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Cumbersome or not, that is the official title of the photograph, according to our own article on the subject of the photo. Seems to me that as an encyclopedia, we have an obligation to use the actual title. Jeffpw (talk) 05:30, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

No my point is not that the title is cumbersome, its that you have no documentation that it is the "official" title. Using Wiki as a reference is a Self-Reference. The article you cite has no documentation, just another unsupported claim. Moreover, the article refers to the photo as "The Falling Soldier" in three references. TheMindsEye (talk) 14:49, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

The original title is available at pbs --220.245.152.34 (talk) 07:34, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mine

Do we know who laid the mine which accounted for his death? Drutt (talk) 18:03, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] First or Second Assault Wave?

I have read conflicting articles from different sources. Several saying he went in with the first assault wave and several saying the second. We need to clarify wich stage he went on to the beach with and correct the article. 69.18.107.112 (talk) 05:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)