When People Cross Borders
October 2003
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
Robert Capa: Children in War--and 9/11, 2001
"Walk Through Paradise Garden," U.S.A, 1946, by W. Eugene Smith
The exhibition "Robert Capa: Children in War--and 9/11, 2001" opened on August 1 at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum in Hachioji, Tokyo. Robert Capa (1913-1954) is considered one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century. The dramatic images he captured on film at the risk of his life over half a century ago still have the power to move people's hearts, as does the story of his life. This exhibition features some 150 works on the theme of "war and children" taken by Capa and 22 other photographers. Also included are stark images of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Robert Capa (born Endre Friedmann) was expelled from Hungary, the country of his birth, at the age of 17. He initially settled in Berlin, where his first "big break" came when he was commissioned to photograph the Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky. From then on, Capa covered a series of conflicts including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Sino-Japanese War, the conflict in the Middle East and the Indochina War, where he was to finally lose his life. Many of the 70,000 photographs he left behind are eternal images of conflict and survival, his message for future generations. Capa was bravery itself on the battlefield, but at heart he was a genuine pacifist. He would often say, "I'm waiting for the day when I'll be out of employment as a war photographer." Wherever he was sent, he always photographed children--evoking the scars that war leaves on innocent lives. He understood that although it was impossible to photograph "war," it was possible to capture the horror of an entire nation in the face of a child.
Barcelona, Spain, January 1939, by Robert Capa
A young girl, Mizque, Bolivia, 1980, by David Burnett
In May 1954, Capa was in Vietnam (then part of Indochina), at Dien Bien Phu near the border with Laos. Walking in a paddy field, he was fatally injured by a land mine. The U.S. government informed his mother that they wanted to bury him at Arlington Cemetery, the cemetery for America's military dead, but she refused, saying: "Robert wasn't a soldier, but an individual striving for peace." His tombstone in New York bears the simple inscription: "Peace--Robert Capa."
New York, U.S.A., September 11, 2001, by James Nachtwey
Famine in Somalia, 1992, by Chris Steele-Perkins
In 1955, the year after Capa was killed, LIFE magazine and the Overseas Press Club of America decided to establish the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award to honor "the best photograph taken overseas with a courageous and adventurous spirit." Numerous works by past winners of this award are included in the exhibition.
Afghan refugee girl, Pakistan, 1985, by Steve McCurry
Naples, Italy, October 2, 1943, by Robert Capa
On the morning of the September 11 terrorist attacks, James Nachtwey, a five-time Robert Capa Gold Medal Award winner, was in his studio very close to Ground Zero. He captured photographs of people fleeing the flames and of firefighters in the chaos, recording the event just as he would the front lines of a war. The Capa exhibition includes some of these images, reminding us that the legacy of Robert Capa and the issues he confronted are just as pressing today as they were in his time. Capa's work is a lasting testament to the belief that it is our innate humanity which provides the most effective means of opposing war, and that by recording the human face of tragedy we can rise above it.
