ers, political demonstrations, congresses, and meet-
ings of writers in Paris. Almost from the beginning,
Chim was one of the few photographers in France
who used a small-format Leica 35-mm camera,
which had recently been introduced. Chim was
self-taught as a photographer; his main influences
at that time were Brassaı ̈and his friends Capa and
Cartier-Bresson.
Between 1936 and 1937, Chim became a special
correspondent in Spain. His photographs of the
Spanish Civil War that were published in many
magazines made Chim a famous and respected
photojournalist. There were at that time some 25
exclusive stories related to the Spanish Civil War
that were published by Chim.
Back in Paris in 1937, Chim covered other politi-
cal events and strikes in France, and occasionally
elsewhere in Europe as well as in North Africa.
The same year, he photographed Pablo Picasso
working on his massive painting, Guernica, inspired
by one of the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War,
which he was creating for the Paris World Exhibition
of 1937; this photograph became one of his signature
images. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Chim shot cover
photographs for various international magazines
such as Regards, Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung,
Life, Jours de France, Paris-Match, and others.
On assignment in Mexico in 1939 to photograph
the hundreds of exiled Spanish resistance fighters,
Chim was in the United States when war was
declared in Europe. Staying on in New York City,
Chim assisted his friend Leo Cohn, who opened a
darkroom (‘‘LECO’’) on 42nd Street.
In 1942, Didek Szymin became a U.S. citizen and
became David Robert Seymour. The same year, as
were many Jews living in Poland, his parents were
killed in the Holocaust. Drafted in the U.S. Army
in October 1942 as a photographic instructor and
aerial photointerpreter, he decided rather than tak-
ing photographs he wished to be more active in the
war effort. Soon promoted to sergeant, Seymour
was sent to England as a specialist in aerial photo-
interpretation in order to prepare for the D-Day
invasion on Normandy’s beaches.
On Liberation Day, Seymour was in Paris, and
after many years of separation, he celebrated vic-
tory with his friends Henri Cartier-Bresson and
Robert Capa. After a promotion to lieutenant (in
May 1945), Seymour returned to civilian status in
the United States during the fall of 1945, and
returned to his job at LECO.
A few months after the end of World War II,
Seymour returned to a desolate Europe to work
again as a photojournalist forThis Weekmaga-
zine. He photographed post-war Germany: Berlin,
Munich, war cemeteries, the Dachau Concentra-
tion Camp.
With Robert Capa, his French friend Henri-Car-
tier Bresson, British photograph George Rodger,
and William Vandivert as co-founders, Seymour
became one of the founders and the first vice-pre-
sident of the Magnum Photos cooperative, in April
1947, in New York City. Working for Magnum
gave Chim many assignments for many magazines
likeSaturday Evening Post; he traveled to Ger-
many, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.
In 1948, the UNICEF commissioned Seymour for
a project on childhood after the war that became a
posthumous exhibition,CHIM’s Children, in 1957 at
the Art Institute of Chicago. During three months in
1948, Chim photographed children in many coun-
tries, including Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary,
Greece, and his native Poland, including the portrait
of the disturbed child Tereska (who had grown up in
a concentration camp) as she was drawing a picture.
These moving pictures of orphans and injured chil-
dren appeared in several magazines worldwide,
including Life. He also made numerous trips to
Palestine and the newborn state of Israel, almost
every year from 1948, to take pictures of the land-
scape and its people. Although Chim experimented
with color in the early 1950s, most of his photo-
graphs were in black and white.
After the death of his friend Robert Capa in
Indochina, Seymour became the president of Mag-
num Photo in 1954; he held this position until his
death in 1956.
An art lover, Seymour photographed famous
personalities such as the art historian Bernard
Berenson, musician Arturo Toscanini, and author
Carlo Levi. During the 1950s, Chim made beautiful
portraits of legendary actresses Sophia Loren,
Gina Lollobrigida, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn,
Ingrid Bergman, and Marilyn Monroe. Seymour
never married and had no children.
As a photojournalist or a member of the 12th
Army Corps, Seymour visited many battlefields in
just 20 years. During his coverage of the armistice
following the Suez War in Egypt, Seymour was killed
by a bullet from an Egyptian partisan, four days after
the cease fire, in El Quantara, near Suez, on Novem-
ber 10, 1956. Chim had not yet reached 45. French
photographer Jean Roy, who was traveling with him,
was killed simultaneously.
In memory of the two great war photographers
and photojournalists who were also friends and col-
leagues, The Robert Capa-David Seymour Photo-
graphic Foundation was created by sister Eileen
Shneiderman along with Robert Capa’s mother
and brother Cornell in 1958 in Israel. Eight yearsSEYMOUR, DAVID ‘‘CHIM’’