camps established to process and temporarily
accommodate them.
During the first few years of the 1950s, Capa
avoided most political assignments, and instead
spent much of his time in Paris working at Mag-
num and writing a series of lighthearted travel
articles for Holiday magazine. In the spring of
1954, he went to Japan to shoot a photographic
series for Mainichi Press on children, a subject that
had interested Capa throughout his career during
times of both war and peace. Indeed, many of
Capa’s images of children from throughout his
career achieve the same sense of immediacy and
intimacy that has become the hallmark of his
more acclaimed battlefield images.
Capa’s six-week assignment in Japan lasted only
three, however, asLife,inneedofanemergency
replacement photographer, sent him to cover the
war in what was then known as French Indochina.
Soon after arriving in the capitol of Hanoi, he left
forLaostophotographthereleaseofFrenchsol-
diers captured by the Viet Minh during their his-
toric victory at Dienbienphu. Capa then returned
to Hanoi, where he spent several days photo-
graphing the inhabitants of the city and their
daily routines. On May 25, Capa accompanied a
French convoy on a mission to evacuate two out-
posts, documenting the soldiers’ slow advance
through the hostile countryside of the Red River
delta. While apparently maneuvering to photo-
graph a column of soldiers as they advanced ac-
ross a meadow Capa, with Contax camera in
hand, stepped on a land mine and was killed al-
most instantly.
Days after his death, the French military awarded
Capa one of its highest honors, the Croix de Guerre
with Palm. In 1955, the Overseas Press Club andLife
magazine jointly established the annual Robert
Capa Gold Medal Award awarded to photo-
journalists exhibiting extraordinary courage and
enterprise while working abroad. In 1958, Ro-
bert’s brother Cornell Capa and mother Julia
Friedmann, along with David Seymour’s sister,
created The Robert Capa-David Seymour Photo-
graphic Foundation in Israel. Eight years later, in
1966, the Werner Bischof-Robert Capa-David
Seymour Photographic Memorial Fund was es-
tablished to celebrate and support the work of
these and other photojournalists, which in 1974
evolved into the International Center of Photo-
graphy in New York City. In 1976, Capa was
inducted into the International Photography
Hall of Fame and Museum.
MAXWeintraubSeealso:Cartier-Bresson, Henri; Kerte ́sz, Andre ́;
Life; Magnum Photos; Seymour, David ‘‘Chim’’;
War PhotographyBiography
Born Endre Friedmann in Budapest, Hungary, October 22- Worked at photographic agency Dephot, photo-
graphed Leon Trotsky speech, 1932; covered Popular
Front political campaign, 1936; took first of several
trips to Spain to cover civil war, 1936; traveled to
China to cover Japanese Invasion, 1938; worked on
miscellaneous assignments forLifemagazine in United
States and Mexico 1939; collaborated with writer Diana
Forbes-Robertson onThe Battle of Waterloo Bridge, - Covered Allied campaigns in North Africa and
Italy, 1943; landed with Allied forces on D-Day at
Omaha Beach on Normandy coast of France; covered
liberation of Paris and Battle of the Bulge, 1944; docu-
mented liberation of Germany, 1945; publishedSlightly
Out of Focus,1946. Founded Magnum agency with
Henri Cartier-Bresson and others, 1947; took first of
three trips to Israel to cover Israeli struggle for indepen-
dence and Arab-Israeli war, 1948; 1948–1954, wrote for
Holidayin Paris, continued working at Magnum; colla-
borated with several writers on travel projects. Worked
in Japan on project for Mainichi Press, went to Indo-
china forLife, documenting French withdrawal from
Dienbienphu, 1954. Killed by land mine in northern
Vietnam, 1954.
Individual Exhibitions
1952 On Picasso; Museum of Modern Art; New York, New
York
1960 Robert Capa: War Photographs; Smithsonian Institu-
tion; Washington, D.C.
1964 Images of War; Smithsonian Institution; Washington,
D.C.
1980 Robert Capa; Tokyo, Japan
1985 Robert Capa, Photographs; International Center of
Photography; New York, New York
1987 Sala Parpallo; Valencia, Spain
1997 Robert Capa: Photographs; Philadelphia Museum of
Art; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1999 Robert Capa: Photographies; Musee d’Art Americain;
Giverny, France
2002 Robert Capa: Israel 1948–1950Selected Group Exhibitions
1951 Memorable Life Photographs; Museum of Modern
Art; New York, New York
1955 The Family of Man; Museum of Modern Art; New
York, New York
1960 The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers; Smith-
sonian Institution; Washington, D.C.
1969 Israel: The Reality; Jewish Museum; New York, New
York
1972 Behind the Great Wall of China; Metropolitan
Museum of Art; New York, New York
1973 Looking at Photographs; Museum of Modern Art;
New York, New YorkCAPA, ROBERT