War and WWII in Europe, Hungarian born Capa’s
(born Endre Friedmann) career lasted up to the
moment he was killed by a landmine in Indochina
in 1954. Capa, who considered himself to be a jour-
nalist rather than an artist, was the quintessential
mid-century photographer. He was both a straight
photographer and a humanist and had an eye for
amazing portraiture. Paradoxically, he first entered
the world of photography for economic rather than
artistic reasons as a darkroom assistant. Yet, influ-
enced by his relationships with some of the great
photographers of his time, such as Cartier-Bresson
and Andre ́Kerte ́sz, Capa became one of the most
sought-after photographers of the 1930s and 1940s.
Technically speaking, Capa was never a master in
the darkroom. His editors remarked that he seemed
to have installed a device on his camera that inten-
tionally scratched his film. Thus, although Capa
never did quite master the technical side of his art,
such as the use of his flash, his style and ability to
capture the emotion of a moment are virtually
unsurpassed in the photographers of his generation.
After WWII, Capa continued to photograph and
make an impact on the world of photography both
artistically and professionally. As a man of his era,
Capa understood that ‘‘professionalism’’ was becom-
ing more individualistic in late-1940s Europe, where
the art world was still buzzing with energy. The
photographers who were working and living in Paris
banded together in 1947 to create Magnum Photos.
Named for its dictionary definition as a ‘‘two-quart
bottle of spirits,’’ ‘‘Magnum’’ was an agency formed
to support a commitment to ‘‘concerned’’ photogra-
phy and to serve as an international forum for pro-
fessional photographers and a training ground for
young up-and-coming artists. Owned and operated
by the artists themselves, the agency’s founding mem-
bers included Robert Capa (who was at the center of
the activity) and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Their goal
was to improve the lives of photographers and at the
same time to allow full artistic license. It was meant to
be a collective enterprise in which photographers
could develop individually and be free to roam the
world and choose their own subjects.
While he was still establishing Magnum, Capa
continued to travel the world. He created a portfo-
lio of images from the USSR in 1947, the building
of the newly founded State of Israel in the late
1940s, the social elite of Europe in the 1950s, and
haunting images of Japan and Indochina in 1954.
Capa was also capable of capturing the essence of
everyday life of the rich and famous: his photos of
Picasso and his family at the Golfe-Juan in 1948 are
best remembered in the photo of the artist holding
an umbrella over Franc ̧oise Gilot while walking on
the beach, and another of him cradling his young
son in his arms. We find the same atmosphere pre-
sent in Capa’s photos of Matisse at his studio in
Nice and Alfred Hitchcock at work on a film set.
Although Capa was influenced by Cartier-Bres-
son’s theory of ‘‘the decisive moment,’’ the two had
very diverse approaches to their subject matter.
While Cartier-Bresson was noted for his ‘‘cool
detachment’’ from his subjects, Capa became inti-
mate with the people he photographed and im-
mersed himself in the whole experience. This
commitment to his subjects is tragically marked by
the fact that while marching with the Vietnamese
army near Thaibinh on a last-minute assignment
forLifemagazine in May of 1954, Capa was killed
climbing a dike. His last images show the very spot
where he lost his life moments later.
Women also made an impact on postwar photo-
graphy and one of these was another photographer
who had become famous during WWII—Life
photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White. Though
Bourke-White gained a reputation for such firsts
as being the first female photographer to fly on a
bombing mission during the war, and the first wes-
tern photographer allowed to enter the Soviet
Union, some of her most impressive and touching
images were created after 1945. For example, she
was sent to India and Pakistan to capture the tur-
bulence of the era and from this produced one of the
most striking photos ever taken of Gandhi,Mon-
handras Gandhi at His Spinning Wheel(1946). For
that photo she was asked to first learn the art of the
chakra, the spinning wheel, in order to better under-
stand the man. She successfully spun some wool
and was let in and allowed three photos. The first
two failed technically and her only shot turned out
to betheone. Whenever Gandhi later saw her he
would joke, ‘‘There’s the torturer again.’’ She was
also the last one to interview Gandhi before his
assassination. In the early 1950s, she went on to
photograph other important social issues such as
South Korea and apartheid South Africa where she
documented the life of poor blacks living behind
barbed wire such as inShantytown Dweller(1950)
andGold Minersin Johannesburg (1950).
The shift from the 1940s to the 1950s was not just
noted in the work of individual photographers such
as Bourke-White and Klein but was perhaps best
illustrated in one of the most important artistic events
of the 1950s.The Family of Manexhibition that took
place at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in
1955 influenced and defined the shape of the future
of photography. Billed by its promoters as ‘‘the great-
est photographic exhibition of all time’’ it was orga-
nized by Edward Steichen and was a compilation ofHISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: POSTWAR ERA