Simboli.Ancora dubbi sulla storica immagine del reporter Usa. A rischio anche il ricordo collettivo della guerra civile di Spagna?

L’odissea di Death of a Loyalist Soldier, il miliziano colpito a morte dalla truppe franchiste, la foto-simbolo della guerra civile spagnola realizzata dal fotografo americano Robert Capa, non è ancora finita. Di nuovo l’accusa di falso. Possibile? È quanto sostiene lo storico spagnolo José Manuel Susperregui, secondo il quale il paesaggio della foto, che Capa disse di aver scattato nel 1936 a Cerro Muriano, alle porte di Cordoba, non corrisponde affatto a quella località, ma ad una località chiamata Espejo, molto lontana dal fronte di battaglia.

Susperregui, docente del dipartimento di comunicazione audiovisiva dell’Universidad del País Vasco, torna alla carica dopo le dichiarazioni polemiche a luglio nel pieno della mostra This Is War: Robert Capa at Work al Museo Nazionale di Arte della Catalogna di Barcellona (che dura fino al 27 settembre), con una intervista al New York Times sul capitolo dedicato a Capa nel suo libro, Sombras de la fotografìa.

Sembrava che i dubbi sull’autenticità della foto si fossero sciolti nel 2008 con il ritrovamento a Città del Messico di alcuni negativi dati per persi, quaranta fotografie scattate nello stesso giorno, nello stesso luogo, scoperte dall´International Centre of Photography di New York, il centro fondato da Cornell Capa, fratello di Robert. Gli scatti, esposti poi a Londra, davano la conferma che il famoso miliziano fosse Federico Borrell García e che la località dello scatto fosse Cerro Muriano.

È dagli anni 70 che si avanzano dei dubbi sull’attimo fatale per il miliziano: coincidenza perfetta o una posa creata a tavolino? Fu proprio l’identificazione del miliziano spazzò via le ombre. Ora i riflettori si spostano sul paesaggio, grazie alle altre foto ritrovate: un’altra località, lontana dal fronte.

«Quando ho deciso di cercare il paesaggio sullo sfondo della foto di Capa, non ho voluto dire il perchè per non influenzare nessuno, vista la portata ideologica ed emotiva della foto». Mostrate a una classe di ragazzi, non c’è stato dubbio sulla località chiamata Espejo. Anche la stampa spagnola si è mossa, El Periòdico de Catalunya ha mandato dei repoter a Espejo, con lo stesso risultao. Crolla dunque il mito di Capa?

Gli esperti del Centro Internazionale di Fotografia di Manhattan dove è custodito l’archivio Capa, non respingono l’indagine di Susperregui, ma invitano a non scivolare nella più ovvia delle conclusioni – come dice il direttore Willis E. Hartshorn ossia che la foto sia del tutto falsa. Per Cynthia Young, curatrice dell’archivio Capa, la tesi è «avvincente, persino persuasiva» ma è anche vero che con la ovvia fretta del reporter di guerra «Capa ha siglato di persona poche didascalie», informazioni integrate a Parigi dall’agente e dall’editore, magari con qualche errore.

Gli storici spagnoli dicono che sebbe a fine mese gli scontri furono intensi, non v’è traccia di spari nella zona immortalata nella foto, quando il 22enne Capa e la sua compagna Gerda Taro passarono di lì. Da New York rispondono che se è vero che nessuna battaglia infuriava, l’alta probabilità di un cecchino potrebbe dare una spiegazione plausibile e alternativa ai dubbi del professore. Ma Susperregui ribatte: «Idea da respingere in toto, perchè le due linee erano troppo distanti. Inoltre, nessuna notizia di attività di cecchini sul fronte di Cordoba». Poi incalza: «Da una pubbicazione anarchica del 1937 risulta che Borrel il miliziano sia caduto dietro un albero e non in campo aperto». Ma la Magnum, di cui Capa era stato uno dei soci, già nel 1996 difese anzi blindò l’identità di Borrell.

La questione è diventata inevitabilmente politica, il governo socialista ha già difeso il carico simbolico della foto: «L’arte è sempre manipolazione dal momento che posizioni l’obiettivo verso una direzione e non un’altra» ha detto la regista e ora ministro della cultura Angeles Gonzalez Sinde. Per Hartshorn «c’è in atto una enorme speculazione ma niente che ci possa far venire a capo della questione. Troppi pezzi sparsi che non possiamo verificare o provare».

Il prossimo 10 ottobre la mostra si sposterà al Nederlands Fotomuseum in Olanda. Altro giro, altra polemica? Resta l’accanimento verso una foto (e un fotografo, Capa, repubblicano e antifascista) simbolo di una guerra che potrebbe sparire dall’immaginario. Obama e McCain hanno il mito di Robert Jordan, il volontario americano nella guerra di Spagna di Per chi suona la campana di Hemingway, ma la loro è una memoria adulta, tutta americana, di un evento remoto e congelato per decenni (con l’eccezione di Ken Loach). La maggior parte degli scatti di Capa fatti a Omaha, finirono bruciati da Life in camera oscura. Eppure a quelle 11 foto sono rimasti aggrappati per anni i ricordi dei reduci, fino al Soldato Ryan di Spielberg. Una legge che vale anche per il miliziano, vero o falso che sia.

Alec Guinness, England, 1952 by Cornell Capa

A Shakespearean actor who was better known for his ability to be entirely absorbed into characters he was playing on stage, Alec Guinness entered movies through the Ealing comedies. The year 1952 was a breakthrough year for him; director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role in The Card. The story was about a charming and ambitious young man who raises himself through the ranks in business and social standing by both honest and dishonest means.

“Versatile and self-effacing actor who turned anonymity into an art form and himself into an international star,” wrote the Times in Guinness obituary. If there was one image that defined Guinness’s acting, this Capa image would be that one.

In photography Cornell Capa has huge renown. In prisons, Attica has a huge renown. It is therefore, expected that I’d transcribe Capa’s testimony to the McKay Commission (New York State Special Commission on Attica) Hearings.

After the text I shall offer my opinion.

TEXT

Cornell Capa: I was asked eventually by Arthur [Liman, Counsel] if I would want to look at Attica for the reasons that he mentioned, that photography and a photographer may have something to contribute …

As a human being and a photographer, my personal and professional and civic feeling was to look into it and – as my professional life is involved in understanding human condition – try to perceive what it is all about.

I think photography can serve a most useful role in an investigation and that’s exactly what I consented to do.

I [have] submitted 26 photographs which I will be showing to the commission and I have submitted equally a very short written statement and captions for the photographs.

I would like to really just read my written statement and following that as the photographs go by, I will do the captioning job for them.

At Attica: A Photographic Report.

Recently I spent three days at Attica, having been asked by the McKay commission to take a look at the institution and bring back my visual report.

During the visits to Attica I was, at all times, accompanied by a correction officer and a member of the Commission staff; all persons recognizable in these photographs consented to be photographed.

My photographs and their captions constitute my report for the commission. There is just a little more to add.

A feeling of nervous expectation seems to pervade Attica. Everybody is waiting the result of the work of the Commission’s investigations on the causes of the explosion which occurred there six months ago, and their recommendations for the future avoidance of such a tragedy in the future. Both sides, inmates and guards expect some new things to evolve from the findings – some kind of miracle which will transform the institution into a place where the Biblical lion and lamb will better live together peacefully.

The only hitch: each side has its very own view of the meaning of peaceful and better coexistence, and how to achieve it.

From the outside, Attica situated in the rolling farmland in western New York, has a Disneyland-like appearance, especially at night.

Attica’s inmates are all locked in their cells from approximately 5pm until 7am the next morning. Officers on the night shift make lonely rounds checking the count six times a night.

All movement in Attica is limited by locks. At night the duty officer must carry with him all the keys he will need on his nightly round of inspection

Confined to their 4 x 9 cells, inmates may talk to one another across the cellblocks and play music instruments until 8pm.

Locked in a cell a mirror is an inmates eyes to the rest of his gallery, and whenever something happens, the mirrors appear as if on cue.

After 8pm talking and noise  are not permitted. There is little to do until lights out at 11pm except read, write letters or listen to one of the three channels of the prison radio which plays music, sports and the audio portion of TV shows.

In E Block, Attica’s medium security prison with the maximum-security walls, a small group of inmates in special programs are permitted to remain at night in the blocks day room to watch television, play cards or talk.

Corrections officers on the day shift leave homes in the town of Attica and surrounding communities and report for roll calls at 7am, 9.20am, 3pm and 11pm to receive their assignments.

These are the guns and smoke parts etc, what [sic] they keep  in the armory for emergency use only.

These are the keys, which they use, the whole system is based on keys. This is just a very small selection of all the keys that open all the doors in Attica

On signal the cells open and inmates in each company line up in two’s to be escorted down one of the endless corridors to the mess hall for breakfast

In his daily movements throughout the institution, an inmate must pass through several times through ‘Times Square’ where the corridors leading from the four main cell blocks converge and gates point in four directions.

Many inmates spend up to five hours a day working in one of the prison industries, the largest of which is a large metal shop, where inmates build steel cabinets and office furniture for state institutions.

For a few hours each day, inmates are allowed to go into their cellblock’s yard for outdoor recreation

The sports facilities, always limited, have been even more curtailed since September. For most inmates the yard means walking around and around or standing around.

The only opportunity for most inmates to watch TV is outside in the yard. Due to the winter climate and the meager daytime TV schedules, few are interested.

While some are out in the yard, others return to their cellblocks. In some areas there are improvised meeting rooms where a few inmates can pursue simple hobbies and handicrafts.

For the rest it is back to the cells to pass the hours until supper. The site of disembodied hands outside the bars playing cards is not unusual here.

Some play chess but the opponent remains unseen.

There is so much idle time; one of the most common activities is preparing legal paper for appeals and writs.

9.30 to 3.30 every day are visiting hours. Those inmates whose families live nearby or who can afford the long journey to Attica may receive a visit. Visits take place in a large room, under the watch of officers and a wire screen separates the inmates from his visitor.

An inmate’s personal touch, often his own creation, is the difference between one cell and another.

One of the statewide changes since the riot is the creation of inmate liaison committees at each institution.

The committee at Attica was elected last month, has adopted a constitution and has begun the task of drawing up projected reforms.

Although life at Attica is again becoming routine, grim reminders of what happened there are everywhere.

This is the round State Shop in damaged condition beyond repair.

Two of the cells blocks were destroyed beyond repair and are still unoccupied. D Block yard on which the eyes of the world were focused for four days last September is deserted now. The trench is filled in but remains visible like a scar reminding one of the great illness which fell upon Attica seven months ago.

[END]

_____________________________________________________

Capa’s review is a rather bland description of everyday life in the prison. This comes as quite a disappointment; I had expected a rousing polemic against the unsuitable conditions of mammoth prisons and their effect on the will of man.

These words seem particularly tame when one considers the magnitude, violence and precendence Attica has in the history of prison resistance. The words are detached from the extremely graphic photographs [WARNING] documenting the riot and its bloody remnants. Capa’s words are the epitome of obsolescence.

Attica was a disaster.

On Sept. 13, [1972] in upstate New York, a four-day standoff at the Attica Correctional Facility ended when 500 state troopers attacked the prison compound, firing 2,200 bullets in nine minutes. The raid killed 29 inmates and 10 guards held as hostages, while wounding at least 86 other people. The orders came from Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.

Capa’s words fall short of the strength needed to describe the institution six months on from disaster.

I encourage you all to browse Attica Revisited an encyclopaedic resource of official papers, oral history video and photography.

When Cornell Capa died in May 2008, the ICP, Magnum and the New York Times paid their regards. However, it seems his death passed without the widespread acknowledgment his life demanded. Or maybe I am projecting my own amnesia onto America’s media and photographic communities?

Cornell, to some extent, lived in the shadow of his older brother Robert. I guess, it is easy for complacent men to adore the still and fallen martyr than to keep apace with passionate and piqued practitioner. Cornell, a gentlemen, contributed to this though fighting his brother’s corner in the ceaseless authenticity debate surrounding The Falling Soldier.

Cornell’s indebtedness to his brother was fateful and self-imposed:

“From that day,” Mr. Capa said about his brother’s death, “I was haunted by the question of what happens to the work a photographer leaves behind, by how to make the work stay alive.”

Disappointingly, it is only in extended surveys of Cornell Capa’s career that mention of his fifties photojournalism in Central and Southern America gets mentioned. Otherwise, Cornell is celebrated for his political journalism and particularly his campaign coverage of Adlai E. Stevenson, Jack and Bobby Kennedy. It is perhaps an indicator of americocentric conceit that Cornell’s photographs from Latin America are often neglected, even demoted.

The Kennedys were the foci of American progressive attitudes – it was easy for a man such as Cornell to get behind their Democratic and social agendas.

In the sixties, Cornell documented the concerned politician, he was (not in a negative way) passive. For Cornell, the sixtes were not formative. It was in the fifties that he actively worked to define the persona, the ideal: ‘The Concerned Photographer’.

Cornell’s work in Latin America:

Beginning in 1953, Capa traveled regularly to Central and South America. He focused extensively on the explosive politics of the region, particularly issues such as elections, free speech, foreign investments, and workers’ rights. His first trip was to Guatemala for Life. Capa photographed banana workers and peasants, and the complicated relationship and struggle for power between the local leftist leaders, President Jacobo Arbenz and the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. In his most dynamic news story, he covered the collapse and fiery aftermath of the regime of dictator Juan Peron in Argentina in 1955. A year later he photographed in Nicaragua following the assassination of dictator Anastasio Somoza.

In 1956, he was sent to Ecuador by Life to cover the brutal murder of five Christian missionaries. This was to be a life changing experience. Typical of the way Capa was to engage with his subjects over many years, rather than taking the photographs and leaving the scene, he continued to photograph the story over time. In particular, he focused on one of the widows, Betty Elliot, and her extraordinary, understanding relationship with the Indians with whom she and her young daughter lived for several years, as she pursued her missionary work and research into the native language and customs.

In 1956, Cornell was in Nicaragua reporting on the assassination of President Anastasio Somoza García. Somoza was shot by a young Nicaraguan poet; the murder only disrupting slightly the Somoza dynasty that lasted until the revolution of 1979 (that’s where Susan Meiselas picks up).

In the aftermath of the assassination over 1,000 “dissidents” were rounded up. The murder was used as an excuse and means to suppress many, despite the act being that of one man.

I have no knowledge of what happened to these men after Cornell photographed them and I am sure you haven’t the patience for speculative-art-historio-speak.

I do wonder … if having witnessed revolution, early democracies, military juntas, coups, communism, social movements, grand narratives and oppression in various forms if Cornell picked his subjects with discernment back in the United States.

As early as 1954 Cornell was working on a story for Life about the education of developmentally disabled children and young adults. This feature was a breakthrough, for until then the subject had been regarded by most American magazines as taboo.

In 1966, in memorial to his brother, Robert, and out of his “professed growing anxiety about the diminishing relevance of photojournalism in light of the increasing presence of film footage on television news” Cornell founded the Fund for Concerned Photography. In 1974, this ideal found a bricks and mortar home on 5th Ave & 94th Street in New York: The International Center for Photography.

This institutional limbo that eventually gave rise to one of the world’s most important photography organisations was not a quiet period for Cornell. In 1972, he was commissioned to Attica, NY, to document visually the conditions of the prison. Capa presented his evidence to the McKay report which investigated the cause of the bloody uprising the previous year. Cornell narrates his personal observations while showing his photographs to the commission. (PDF, Part 1, pages 8-14)

At a time when, the photojournalist community seems to have crises of confidence and purpose at an alarming rate, it would be wise to embrace the spirit and slow accumulation of accomplishments that Cornell Capa espoused and secured.

Rest In Peace, Cornell.

PHOTO CREDITS.
Robert F. Kennedy campaigning in Elmira, New York, September 1964. Accession#: CI.9685
New York City. 1960. Senator John F. KENNEDY and his wife, Jackie, campaigning for the presidency. NYC19480 (CAC1960014 W00020/XX). Copyright Cornell Capa C/Magnum Photos
Three men pushing John Deere machine, Honduras, 1970-73. Accession#: CI.3746
Watching family planning instructional film at Las Crucitas clinic, Tegucigalpa, Honduras], 1970-73. Accession#: CI.8544
Political dissidents arrested after the assassination of Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza, Managua, Nicaragua, September 1956. The LIFE Magazine Collection. Accession#: 2009.20.13
NICARAGUA. Managua. 1956. Some of the one thousand political dissidents who were arrested after the assassination of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. NYC19539 (CAC1956012 W00004/09). Copyright Cornell Capa/Magnum Photos
Prisoners escorted from one area to another, Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, New York, March 1972 (printed 2008). Accession#: CI.9693
Two men walking around prison courtyard, Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, New York, March 1972. Accession#: CI.9689
Inmates playing chess from prison cells, Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, New York, March 1972. Accession#: CI.9688
Man on scooter carrying coffin, northeastern Brazil, 1962. Accession#: CI.8921

All photos courtesy of The Robert Capa and Cornell Capa Archive, Promised Gift of Cornell Capa, International Center of Photography. (Except for ‘The Concerned Photographer’ book cover; the Jack Kennedy photograph; & the second Nicaragua prison photograph.)

“ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 22 — Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire Kodachrome Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Sales of Kodachrome Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful color film in 1935….As part of a tribute to Kodachrome Film, Kodak will donate the last rolls of the film to George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, which houses the world’s largest collection of cameras and related artifacts. Steve McCurry will shoot one of those last rolls and the images will be donated to Eastman House…”

Cornell Capa, Political advertisement, 1960

Cornell Capa, Kennedy supporters line the train route nears Marysville, California, September 8, 1960

Cornell Capa, Michigan, September 5, 1960

Cornell Capa, Kennedy speaking to voters from the back of the campaign train, September 8-9, 1960

Cornell Capa, New York City, October 19, 1960

W. Eugene Smith, Igor Stravinsky, ca. 1951

Arnold Newman, Stravinsky, 1946

Cornell Capa, [Igor Stravinsky, Venice], 1951

“I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.” – Igor Stravinsky

“My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey.” – Igor Stravinsky (possibly apocryphal)

A editora La Fábrica lançou há pouco tempo o livro Ligeramente desenfocado, um apanhado das memórias de Robert Capa durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, ilustrado com 130 fotografias realizadas pelo fotógrafo entre 1941 e 1945. Com tradução de Miguel Marqués (para o espanhol), o livro é um testemunho de quatro anos de luta e documenta a guerra a partir da perspectiva de homens e mulheres das forças aliadas.

O prólogo do livro é assinado por seu irmão mais novo, Cornell Capa, fundador do International Center of Photography de Nova York, acompanhado por um texto de Richard Whelan, conhecedor e autor de diversos livros sobre Capa, entre eles Robert Capa: A Biography.

Cornell Capa, The fourth and last of the Kennedy-Nixon debates (held in New York City), as seen on the television of a New York bar, Oct. 21, 1960

Cornell Capa, Television comedian and talk-show host Jack Paar at home, watching the show he had taped earlier in the day, 1959

Roger Mertin, Untitled, from the Plastic Love Dream portfolio, 1968

Weegee, Television Antennas – Upper Manhattan, ca. 1960

Weegee, [Empire State Building and antenna], ca, 1960

The date for the final transition of broadcast television from analog to digital is June 12, 2009…

Weegee, a long time critic of television (see The Idiot Box, ca. 1965, 16mm, 5 min.) and the celebrities who appeared on it, presciently, and perhaps psychically, knew, as the FCC writes on their website: A good antenna makes all the difference in the world…

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Friday January 23, 09 and was written by CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN
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Against the backdrop of a crisp blue sky streaked with stark-white clouds, a well-chiseled, glistening man wearing nothing but goggles, hot-pink briefs and white fur boots is draped over a suitcase. His mouth is ever so slightly ajar as his crotch dramatically thrusts skyward.

For many, the racy image, from a 2007 photo shoot titled “Frozen Margarita” in the French men’s magazine Numéro Homme, may seem more at home in a breathless issue of Playgirl than a museum exhibition. No matter how artfully shot or arresting an image it is, the picture, taken by Dutch fashion photographer Matthias Vriens, is in its essence about an almost-nude man striking a lewd pose.

But now a museum is where you’ll find it. The piece is part of an exhibition that’ll kick off a year-long series of shows that the International Center of Photography in New York is devoting to fashion photography.
“Veruschka, New York”

The series, which will feature hundreds of photographs spread out over seven exhibitions in 2009, is an ambitious — and unusual — undertaking for a museum that has generally showcased works of significant social heft. Cornell Capa, the founding director of the center and a photographer himself who died last May, once wrote that photography had a duty to “provoke discussion, awaken conscience, evoke sympathy, spotlight human misery and joy which otherwise would pass unseen, un-understood and unnoticed.” How does a beefcake shot jibe with that mission?

“Some of the questions that we’ve addressed toward other areas of photography such as photojournalism could also be addressed to fashion photography,” argues Brian Wallis, the center’s chief curator. The photographs “address sociological issues or issues of social history and shape public consciousness and attitudes. All kinds of social views go into the production of images for fashion photography.”

The center began planning this series two years ago. Fashion photography is “an area that involves a lot of inventiveness in order to keep things lively for the reader — to do the same thing month after month, year after year really requires extreme innovation if you’re going to be any good,” says Vince Aletti, a co-curator of the series. “A lot of the people who are working [in it] today are producing some of the most interesting photography out there, and virtually all of that work hasn’t been seen by anyone unless they’re looking very regularly at American and European fashion magazines.”

Indeed, the exhibitions feature the work of several well-respected photographers who are already regarded as artists: Richard Avedon, whose vibrant pictures conveyed the exuberance and motion of fashion in still photographs, is the subject of a show that runs from May 15 through Sept. 6, for example. Hungarian fashion photographer Martin Munkacsi, who shot spreads for ad campaigns and magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar in the early 20th century, also warrants his own exhibition, which is up through May 3. And names such as Hedi Slimane, postmodern avant-garde artist Cindy Sherman (who outfits herself in designer duds for French Vogue) and Juergen Teller (of the haunting Marc Jacobs ads) are included in “Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now,” which also has a May 3 closing date.

The concept for the series began with discussions about the Avedon show, which branched out to also include the planning for one on the work of Edward Steichen, a big name in art photography who drew some fire during his time for doing commercial work as chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair in the 1920s; and another about pictures that weren’t conceived as fashion shots but possess a distinctive style element. Called “This Is Not a Fashion Photograph,” that show includes such works as an untitled picture from Carrie Mae Weems’s 1990 “Kitchen Table Series,” which shows a proud-looking, perfectly coifed woman sitting erect at a dining table and staring straight ahead, almost mannequin-like, as a man slouched nearby reads the newspaper. A 1966 Bruce Davidson photograph of a high-school student smoking a cigarette while carrying a switchblade on East 100th Street in Manhattan depicts the young man in a pose that manages to look both semistudied and not terribly unlike the man-on-the-street images that pop up in fashion magazines these days.

Nick Knight, Courtesy of the artist

Nick Knight’s ‘Boned,’ part of ‘Weird Beauty,’ one of the International Center of Photography’s shows.
In the case of the Steichen show, co-curator Carol Squiers says she was interested in showcasing the work of a shooter who was a pioneer in the genre. Mr. Steichen actually produced some of his best work for magazines. The exhibition’s photos from the Condé Nast archives include portraits of such celebrities as Amelia Earhart and Charlie Chaplin. Many of the works are simple, straightforward glamour shots — some of the more striking pieces are the ones with no bold-faced names attached. A 1934 photograph meant to accompany a story on hand and nail care, for example, focuses on a model who is shown dramatically shielding her face with her hands.

Ms. Squiers wants the pictures in the series to convince viewers that fashion photography should be treated as a serious art form. “I hope one thing they’ll get is just the way imagination unleashed on even a subject as limited as a coat or a dress can go in so many different directions,” she says.

Some of the most striking photographs are to be found in the “Weird Beauty” exhibition. A Steven Klein spread juxtaposes a plus-size woman in intimate situations with a young, muscular pretty boy with long hair. “It’s a great female fantasy and one that you don’t often see,” Ms. Squiers says. A Günther Parth spread on hats shows pieces like a bucket hat and a rumpled knit cap perched atop styrofoam mannequin heads with ghastly, eroded features. With their pockmarks and deep indentations, the heads conjure thoughts of horrific flesh-eating diseases, providing a fascinating foil for the expensive, tailored chapeaus.

While American magazines have come under some fire in recent years for promoting so-called heroin chic, many of the most daring pictures were culled from European magazines, such as Vogue Paris and Arena Homme Plus. “I think that U.S. advertisers have a lot of influence in terms of what is permissible for the print or editorial sections,” Ms. Squiers says. “They want pictures where the clothes are shown and there are no disturbing images.”

To be sure, there are some photographs in the series that look so straightforward in concept and style that one wonders what separates them from the pictures in the latest J.Crew catalog. But perhaps the answer is “nothing.” The larger point that this series sets out to make, after all, is that art can and should be found in the most commercial and mass-market forms of fashion photography. Even in a simple shot of a man wearing a suit, staring straight into the camera.

Ms. Tan is a fashion reporter for the Journal.

Cornell Capa, [Washington, D.C., Inauguration Day], January 20, 1961

Congratulations to Barack Obama, the forty-fourth president of the United States. On a wintry day much like today, Cornell Capa captured the chilly but hopeful crowds at the inaugural parade of another young senator-turned-president, John F. Kennedy, Jr.

10/07/2008, São Paulo – Mostra (in) dependente de dança?

A “Mostra (in) dependente de dança?” é idealizada e realizada pela Cia. Borelli e o grupo Teatro de Paisagem.

Até 10 de agosto, seis companhias paulistanas ocuparão o Espaço Maquinaria, no bairro da Bela Vista, para mostrar seus últimos trabalhos de dança: Cia. Borelli de Dança, Solos e Reverberações, grupo IN VITRO, Cia. Nósláemcasa, Coletivo de Artistas Intermitentes Abismo de Sonhos e Cia. Fragmento são os grupos que formam a programação da “Mostra (in) dependente de Dança?”.

Grafada com um ponto de interrogação no final, a própria nomenclatura da mostra diz a que veio: questionar a independência dos grupos de dança de São Paulo. Segundo Sandro Borelli, um dos idealizadores da mostra, “fazer arte precisa ser um ato político e reflexivo, sempre, e o fato dos grupos participantes da mostra serem fomentados não anula a discussão sobre a ‘independência’ (ou não) do fazer artístico”.

Faz parte da programação da mostra a discussão de políticas públicas para cultura – especificamente teatro e dança – juntamente com representantes do poder público. Todas as esferas políticas que envolvem a cultura (secretarias municipal e estadual e Funarte, no âmbito federal) foram convidadas a debater o momento atual do país. Workshop, debate de processo de criação, demonstração de trabalho e uma exposição de fotos e vídeos exibida antes de cada espetáculo completam a programação que se encerra em 10 de agosto.

10/07/2008, São Paulo – MAC Ibirapuera exibe obras de ícones da fotografia

O MAC Ibirapuera exibe a exposição “Fotógrafos da Vida Moderna”, reunindo 154 fotografias feitas na primeira metade do século 20 por ícones do gênero, como Brassaï, Cornell Capa, Geraldo de Barros, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Pierre Verger e Robert Doisneau.

A mostra é composta, em sua maioria, por fotos da coleção particular do ex-banqueiro Edemar Cid Ferreira, que estão com o MAC em regime de guarda provisória. São exibidas 124 fotografias da coleção de Ferreira, 19 do acervo do Museu de Arte Contemporânea e 11 do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da USP.

Em cartaz até 28 de setembro, a exposição tem curadoria de Helouise Costa e exibe também exemplares das revistas “Vu”, “Life” e “Paris Match”, nos quais foi publicado o trabalho dos fotógrafos cujas obras integram a mostra.

Entre as fotos presentes na exposição estão ainda imagens de autoria de Alexandr Rodtchenko, André Kertész, Margareth Bouke-White, Leni Riefenstahl, German Lorca, Alice Brill, Thomaz Farkas, e Hildegard Rosenthal.

O galerie Magnum.

En estos últimos días, hemos tenido que escuchar la noticia de la muerte de dos figuras en dos de los temas que con más frecuencia aparecen por aquí; la fotografía y el cine.

El pasado día 23 de mayo, falleció Cornell Capa, el hermano también fotógrafo del mucho más recordado y afamado Robert Capa. Aunque menos conocido, sus fotografías tienen también un impacto notable y creo que el mejor homenaje que se le puede hacer es visitar su galería de imágenes en Magnum Photos. A la vista de lo cual, creo que hubiera alcanzado mayor renombre si no hubiese estado a la sombra de su mítico hermano. Algunas de las fotos que he visto en dicha galería eran conocidas por mí, pero no les había puesto nombre a su autor. Injusto.

Más conocido por el público general es Sidney Pollack, director de cine fallecido este 26 de mayo. No fue especialmente prolífico, y entre su filmografía podemos encontrar algún producto incomprensible, que nunca se debería haber filmado. Pero es responsable de películas como Out of Africa (Memorias de Africa), Three Days of the Condor (Los tres días del cóndor), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (Danzad, danzad, malditos), The Way We Were (Tal como éramos), y mi favorita de este director y una de mis favoritas de toda la historia del cine, Jeremiah Johnson (Las aventuras de Jeremías Johnson). Estos filmes ya bastan para considerarlo uno de los directores importantes de la historia. Estoy pensando que no tengo en mi videoteca particular esta última película. Esta tarde iré a mirar a ver si está publicada.

En cuanto a la foto de hoy, voy a seguir exponiendo imágenes de mi reciente viaje a Italia. Todavía voy por Trieste; estoy liado y no me he metido todavía a revelar los RAW de Venecia. Y al igual que este otro viajero, yo también admiré la cuca iglesia románica de San Silvestro, hoy templo de la iglesia evangélica.

(Pentax K10D; SMC-DA 21/3,2)

Morreu nessa sexta-feira (23/05) o irmão mais novo de Endre Friedmann (Robert Capa), Kornell Friedmann (Cornell Capa) de causas naturais aos 90 anos de idade em New York.

Fotógrafo da Life, membro da Agência Magnum e fundador da International Center of Photography, Cornell – nome adquirido juntamente com a cidadania americana – sempre esteve vinculado ao trabalho de seu irmão e de outros importantes fotógrafos membros da agência como o grande Cartier-Breson.

O que eu não sabia era do excelente fotógrafo que era Cornell.
Um gigante, posso dizer. O trabalho realizado durante a campanha JFK em 1960 e nos cem primeiros dias de seu governo é algo de tirar o fôlego (encontrei algumas fotos dessa campanha em um livro no Fnac).

A Magnum fez um homenagem e colocou um “slide” com 48 fotos de Cornell.

O New York Times também fez um “slide” com 11 fotos.

A curiosidade é que Robert também morreu em um maio, o de 54, só que no dia 25, e não foi de causas naturais.

“…The idea that any photography can’t be personal is madness!… I see something; it goes through my eye, brain,heart,guts; i choose the subject. What could be more personal than that?

“One thing that Life and I agreed right from the start was that one war photographer was enough for my family; I was to be a photographer of peace.“

USA. California. 1960. Senator John F. KENNEDY reaches his hands into a crowd while campaigning for the presidency.

USA. Nevada. US actors Clark GABLE and Marilyn MONROE on the set of “The Misfits”. 1960.

USA. New York. Bronxville. 1959. Jack and Miriam in bed in Bronxville, watching Jack’s show.

A photograph by Cornell Capa of political dissidents arrested after the assassination of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua in 1956.

Todas as fotos são propriedade da agência Magnum

Cornell Capa has died in New York, aged 90. The brother of war photographer Robert Capa, he was a distinguished artist in his own right. He used the term ‘concerned photography’ to describe his work, which blurred the line between image and reality. This shot of Marilyn Monroe is a good example – though it appears to catch her off-guard, she was acting in a scene from The Misfits.

As part of the Magnum group, Capa covered a diverse range of subjects, from the Kennedy presidency to the hidden lives of disabled children. You can view his work here

Read his obituary in The Guardian, here

MADRID.- Cornell Capa era el hermano pequeño del legendario fotógrafo de guerra Robert Capa. Pero también era él mismo fotoperiodista, con históricas imágenes de John F. Kennedy o el golpe de Estado argentino contra Perón, además de editor y fundador del museo de fotografía International Center of Photography (ICP). El menor de los Capa ha muerto en su casa de Nueva York a los 90 años por causas naturales, según informó un portavoz del museo que él mismo había creado.

Al igual que Henri Cartier-Bresson es el padre del ‘momento decisivo’, Cornell Capa aportó a la fotografía con el ‘fotógrafo comprometido’, con imágenes que plasmaban su deseo de cambiar el mundo a través de la fotografía. Además de cubrir eventos políticos, el fotógrafo consagró numerosos reportajes en América Latina a la pobreza y las misiones.

“Cornell creía que las imágenes podían llevarnos a la acción”, ha declarado en un comunicado el director del ICP, Willis E. Hartshorn.

“El mundo de la fotografía ha perdido a un gran fotógrafo y un gran humanista; el mundo de la fotografía ha perdido a su mayor amigo y defensor“, ha lamentado Hartshorn.

Cornell Capa nació en 1918 en Budapest como Cornell Friedmann. En 1936, Cornell se trasladó a París, donde vivía su hermano André (Robert Capa), que pronto se haría famoso por la foto de la muerte del miliciano en la Guerra Civil española. Aunque inicialmente tenía la idea de estudiar Medicina, Cornell se dedicó a imprimir las fotografías de su hermano y sus amigos fotógrafos: David Seymour y Cartier-Bresson.

En 1937, se trasladó a Nueva York, donde consiguió un trabajo en la agencia que representaba a su hermano y, poco después, en el laboratorio de la revista Life. En 1939 publicaba su primera foto, una instantánea de la Feria Internacional de Nueva York,en la revista británica ‘Picture Post’.

Poco después de obtener la nacionalidad americana, en 1944, se incorporó al equipo de fotografía de la revista ‘Life’.

La década siguiente, inauguraría sus principales obsesiones: América Latina (donde viajó por primera vez en 1953) y la política estadounidense, con su primera campaña presidencial, la de Adlai Stevenson en 1952. Son también los años en los que se incorpora a la agencia Magnum. Tras la muerte de su hermano, en 1954 a causa de una mina terrestre en la Primera Guerra Indochina, Cornell dejó su trabajo en ‘Life’ y se incorporó a la mítica agencia fundada por su hermano junto a Cartier-Bresson.

Cornell fotografió campañas electorales de varios presidentes estadounidenses, como la de 1960 de John F. Kennedy. Asímismo, viajó a la URSS, donde pese a las trabas de la burocracia comunista logró memorables imágenes de la ortodoxia rusa, el Bolshoi o el escritor Boris Pasternak.

Volvió también a América Latina. En tiempos de Juan Domingo Perón visitó Argentina y documentó el golpe que lo derrocó en 1955, así como la Guerra de los Seis Días en Israel.

“Me llevó algún tiempo darme cuenta de que la cámara es una mera herramienta, capaz de muchos usos y al final entendí que, para mí, su papel, su poder y su deber son comentar, describir y provocar discusión, despertar las conciencias, evocar simpatía, poner en el punto de mira la miseria humana y la alegría que de otro modo habían pasado inadvertidas, incomprendidas e inadvertidas”, escribió en 1963.

Además de sus imágenes, Capa dedicó buena parte de su carrera a preservar el trabajo de su célebre hermano. En 1974, Capa fundó en Nueva York el Centro Internacional de Fotografía, una fundación que protege la obra de Robert Capa y otros fotógrafos. Era la prolongación natural de una iniciativa anterior, el Fondo Internacional para la Fotografía Comprometida, y se ha convertido en un lugar de encuentro de fotógrafos, el museo ha organizado centenares de exposiciones, talleres y conferencias.

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La nota que reproducimos aquí fue publicada en el sitio del diario El Mundo de Madrid.  Agradecemos a Diana Mines que nos la envió. Naturalmente, hay más comentarios sobre la muerte de Cornell Capa en www.magnumphotos.com donde, además, pueden conocer algo de su obra. Seguramente, también en la web del International Center of Photography, ICP, del cual fue una figura destacada.

The cover of the 1968 The Concerned photographer edited by Cornell Capa which included the work of Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, Chim, Andre Kertesz, Leonard Freed and Dan Weiner.

The New York Times reports that, “Cornell Capa, who founded the Iternational Center of Photography in New York after a long and distinguished career as a photojournalist, first on the staff of Life magazine and then as a member of Magnum Photos, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.” Click on the links below to read more and view a portfolio of images.

“Cornell Capa (1918–2008)” – icp.org.

“Cornell Capa: Portfolio” – magnumphotos.com.

“The concerned photographer finds much in the present unacceptable which he tries to alter. Our goal is simply to let the world also know why it is unacceptable.” - Cornell Capa, photographer.

Clark Gable e Marilyn Monroe. Deserto de Nevada, USA, 1960.

Argentinos saúdam a chegada das tropas destacadas para derrubar Juan Peron do poder. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1952.

Ballet Bolshoi. Moscou, USSR, 1958.

Dissidentes politicos presos após assassinato de Anastasio Sonoza. Manágua, Nicarágua, 1956.

Savoy Ballroom. Harlem, NY, EUA, 1939.

Jack Paar assiste a si mesmo na TV, ao lado da esposa. Bronxville, NY, EUA, 1959.

As mãos de John F. Kennedy. Hollywood, California, EUA, 1960.

Robert Kennedy em campanha pelo senado. Buffalo, EUA, 1964.

Photojournalist, humanitarian, founder of the International Fund for Concerned Photography and founding Director of the International Center for Photography, Cornell Capa died this morning at his home in New York. Cornell Capa will be remembered not only for his work, but his tireless and dedicated support of the medium of photojournalism. He will be missed and remembered.

From his introduction to The Concerned Photographer Capa writes:

“Today so many pictures are being taken that no one is really interested in what has gone on before. Man’s witness of his own time dies with him. Added to that, the technological advances in camera design have made photography seem easy. It has become so popular – so used and abused – that because of it’s popularity, it is in danger of losing its own self respect as well as the trust and confidence of viewers in its veracity and artistry.”

Capa wrote this introduction in the late 60’s, long before the digital age “democratised” photography or the internet and camera phones spawned a generation of “citizen journalism”. I can’t help but wonder, based on the above passage, how he viewed the evolution of his craft. It is appropriate to note that in some ways the book and exhibit The Concerned Photographer was in part a eulogy for his brother Robert Capa and his colleagues Werner Bischof, David Seymour, Dan Weiner, Andre Kertesz and Leornard Freed, but I wonder now, reading it again, if it wasn’t also in part a prophetic warning to preserve the medium.

New York Times Obituary

Photo District News Obituary

Long live the concerned photographer, and long live the legacy of Cornell Capa and the contributions of his generation of photojournalists.

 No words.

Just Cornell Capa’s magnificent and profound photos, exquisitely gorgeous even when the subject was relentless suffering;  master of just how subtle and nuanced and packed with “color” a black and white palette could be.

Brother of Robert Capa and founder of the International Center of Photography.

It is sobering to think of the oppression, the suffering, the anguish that would have never come to light absent the body of work of the two extraordinary Brothers Capa.