Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro. Guadalajara front, Spain July 1937
International Center of Photography.

A few posts down (10 March) I posted a wonderful photo
of a group of Republican Navy marines.

I had been digressing about war ships and the news had
just come in that the ultra-conservative Popular Party
had not won the Spanish general elections. The men in
the photo are all beaming. For those who do not understand
Spanish perhaps I should also have mentioned that a polite
translation of the song "Tragala" linked to the post might be
rendered as something like "Oh you'll just have to grin and bear
it."

I found the photo on some web page which cited the author as
"Capa".

Robert Capa is considered one of the greatest of war photographers,
thanks, partly, to his much-published photos of the Spanish Civil War.
But this wasn't one I recognized as his so I didn't post his name.


I'm glad I didn't because the photo was taken by Gerda Taro.


Gerda Taro was Robert Capa's friend, lover and companion.
She was also a photographer but, until the recent exhibition of her
work at the ICP in New York, had been given very little credit for her
work or for being, perhaps, the first woman photo-journalist to cover
a war.

The first to die.

She was 26 years old when she was hit and killed by a tank at the
battle of Brunete on 25 July 1937 soon after the photo on this post
was taken.

There's more about her on the ICP web and The New York
Times and The Telegraph.



I hope they bring the exhibition to Barcelona.