Robert Capa: A Biog

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Good read

Robert Capa: A Biog
Richard Whelan
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa

Slightly Out of Focus (Modern Library War)

Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa

Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection

ASIN: 0394524888
Release Date: 1985-09-12

Customer Reviews:

Good read.......2007-06-14

Capa was a star. I'd love to meet the guy.

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Images of War
Robert Capa
Manufacturer: Grossman Pubs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CM7D5

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Robert Capa, photographer
This slice of history is a treasure
Incredible
It is definitive

Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection
Richard Whelan
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 071484067X

Book Description

This is the first book to reproduce the definitive set of 937 rarely seen and classic images of Robert Capa, one of the most influential documentary photographers of the twentieth century.Robert Capa (1913-54), one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century and a founding member of Magnum photographic agency, had the mind of a passionate and committed journalist and the eye of an artist. His lifework, consisting of more than 70,000 negative frames, constitutes an unparalleled documentation of a crucial 22-year period (1932-54) encompassing some of the most catastrophic and dramatic events of the last century. This book represents the most definitive selection of Capa's work ever published, 937 photographs meticulously selected by his brother, Cornell Capa (himself a noted Life photographer), and his biographer, Richard Whelan.The photographs, arranged in chronological order as stories and accompanied by brief commentaries, reveal the dramatic shifts in location and subject matter that Capa experienced from day to day--- from war-torn Israel to Pablo Picasso on a sunny beach in France and from Ernest Hemingway carousing in London to Capa's historic images of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy in 1944.

Customer Reviews:

Robert Capa, photographer.......2007-08-10

An excellent book, well printed, with a lot of photographs. The whole book gives a very good vieuw of the work of Capa. A must for everybody!

This slice of history is a treasure.......2007-06-27

As a student of photography in the 1970's, I was familiar with a few dozen of
these images. However I'm thrilled to be able to experience and share this
collection of hundreds of Robert Capa's images, in roughly chronological order, including a few glimpses shot by others which help give a sense of the
times and places in which he blazed fearlessly through his inevitably short life. This is a great gift for anyone interested in the life and work of the
photojournalist covering the frontlines of world conflict.

Incredible.......2005-08-28

Some of the best war photography. Includes all of Capa's most famous photos, and gives some biographical info. I found it inspiring -- it's more important to be close than to have fancy equipment. Courage and preparation win out.

It is definitive.......2001-12-09

I have not seen another book on Robert Capa that provides such a complete and insightful coverage of his career and voluminous production. For those who appreciate the importance of Capa's contribution to the history of photography and the rendition of key events spanning a momentous era of human history, this book is a "must-have". At the same time, it is unfortunate that the publishers chose to economize on the quality of the printing and the binding.

Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa

Average customer rating:

A real life tear jerker. Reads like a novel. I loved it!
The 20th Century's greatest photojournalist

Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa
Alex Kershaw
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306813564

Book Description

An evocative biography of the incomparable Robert Capa, the most famous photojournalist of the twentieth century.

Robert Capa, one of the finest photojournalists and combat photographers of the twentieth century, covered every major conflict from the Spanish Civil War to the early conflict in Vietnam. Always close to the action, he created some of the most enduring images ever made with a camera--perhaps none more memorable than the gritty photos taken on the morning of D-Day.

But the drama of Capa's life wasn't limited to one side of the lens. Born in Budapest as Andre Freidman, Capa fled political repression and anti-Semitism as a teenager by escaping to Berlin, where he first picked up a Leica camera. He founded Magnum, which today remains the most prestigious photographic agency of its kind. He was a gambler and seducer of several of his era's most alluring icons, including Ingrid Bergman, and his friends included Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and John Huston. From Budapest in the twenties to Paris in the thirties, from postwar Hollywood to Stalin's Russia, from New York to Indochina, Blood and Champagne is a wonderfully evocative account of Capa's life and times.

Customer Reviews:

A real life tear jerker. Reads like a novel. I loved it!.......2006-02-13

I loved this book. It actually made me cry. I had no idea that Robert Capa had an affair with Ingrid Bergman (among others!) and it is brilliantly told. I have read a few of Alex Kershaw's books and the thing I really love about them is that they tell true stories in an exciting way. They really do read like novels -- rather than the usual stuffy, worthy bios that get written that only an obsessive fan of the subject could be bothered to wade through. Deserves to be made into a movie.

The 20th Century's greatest photojournalist.......2003-05-18

The life of Robert Capa is fascinating. Born in Budapest in 1913, he was to die forty years later in Vietnam after establishing himself as one of the great photojournalists of the 20th Century. He captured on film some of the most memorable pictures in the Spanish Civil War, including the iconic "The Falling Soldier." A shameless propagandist for the Republican cause, he thought nothing of having combatants "pose" for some of his most dramatic pictures - including, many think, "The Falling Soldier." Did the republican soldier fall because he was shot or because he tripped? Was it posed? The jury is still out on that one. A Jew at a time when anti-Semitism was rife in Europe, he became a committed anti-fascist and socialist. He established the photographers' co-operative, Magnum, in order that photographers had control over their own photographs and earnings. This was not so different to the kibbutzim established in Israel by highly idealistic settlers whom he so admired. Needless to say, Capa was there to record the birth of the fledgling state of Israel in 1948 and caught on film that nation's birth pains as it battled with its Arab neighbours. War was his medium, even though he hated it. He went over in a landing craft to photograph the D-Day landings and produced some of the most memorable pictures of battle ever taken. This was despite that most of the pictures were ruined during the rushed processing in London and some of those that survived are out of focus.

Capa was talented, generous, humorous, and charismatic. An inveterate gambler, he played poker with the likes of John Huston and Ernest Hemmingway, and inevitably lost. Like most people who don't care about money, money problems plagued him. Highly sexed, he counted some of the most beautiful women of the age amongst his lovers, including Ingrid Bergman. When lovers were not immediately available, he contended himself with prostitutes. Loving and loved in return, he was too much of a bohemian to commit himself to a permanent relationship. He could have been rich, but he never was. He could have happily married, but he never did.

Capa's luck ran out when he went to Vietnam in 1953 to cover the war between the French and the Vietnamese and trod on a landmine.

Book Description

Considered by many to be the greatest war photographer, Robert Capa first gained recognition for images he made during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This volume is the first to be devoted entirely to these photographs.

In 1936, the rebellion of monarchists and fascists led by General Franco, in alliance with Hitler and Mussolini, mobilized anti-fascists all over the world, among them Robert Capa. During the entire period of the civil war, Capa traveled throughout the Loyalist-held areas of Spain, photographing battles, cities under siege, and the chaos of a modern nation at war with itself.

One series of images documents the heroic Loyalist defense of Madrid; another the mass exodus of Catalonians from Barcelona to the French border. His iconic photograph of a Loyalist militiaman who has just been shot shocked the world with its brutal immediacy. Capa's pictures not only illuminated the strength and courage of the soldiers who carried on against overwhelming odds but also galvanized compassion for the innocent and injured. John Steinbeck praised Capa for his ability to "show the horror of a whole people in the face of a child."

Customer Reviews:

This book is exceptional.......2007-01-11

Is a very interesting book, whith "beautifull" images in a very good print.

Unbelievably Potent Photographs of Spain's Civil War.......2001-06-12

Capa is considered one of the fathers of modern combat photography. These photographs clearly verify that fact. The modern combat photographers that have come after were all aware of Capa's work and if they didn't overtly copy his style, they certainly used it as a foundation. The potency of these photographs is not so much the action they sometimes capture, but in the faces set in the multitude of back drops of war. The viciousness and tragedy of this conflict hotly radiate out of some of these photographs. Others coolly reflect despair and fear. The book is at the same time a statement about war and a valuable historical document.

Thank God the communists lost in Spain.......2000-11-19

This collection of photos are important for the sake of history but must be evaluated in the proper context: Capa and the Loyalists sought to establish a Stalinist state in Spain, not a "democracy". The creation of a Stalinist state would have brought terror, murder, etc. upon the Spanish people and would have destroyed the country. I believe that the record of history (and my own personal experience as a Spaniard) has proven that the Nationalist victory was the best thing that could have happened to Spain at the time. Just look at the atrocities (tens of millions of dead, terror, etc) the Communists committed in Russia, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, and on and on and on; who in their right mind would wish that on anyone? Franco punished some of the loyalists but the overwhelming majority were welcomed back into society. Now that the Soviet Union has fallen and that ridiculous "philosophy" of "communism" has been proven to be one of the worst disasters visited upon mankind those who tried to force that evil upon Spain during the Civil War should hang their heads in shame. Viva Espana!

To read this book is to see the heart of Robert Capa.......1999-11-10

This book shows the heart of the Spainish people as they fought for their freedom. One could ask, "What Price Freedom?" Robert Capa lost his one true love when Gerda Taro was killed. To read through this book, to look at the pictures, is to look into the heart of Robert Capa.

Bob we all miss you.

An Essential Book for any serious collector.......1999-08-16

This is one of the best and most moving combat photo volumnes I have seen. Capa is a genius artist with the camera, compassionate toward humanity and as courageous as any soldier on the field of battle. All these three qualities jump at you with the turn of every page. There is no saftey of the Zoom lens here. The comments from the reviewer of the DC are absurd. This book is about humanity at war. Whether or not the subject matter happens to be from one army or another is least of the concerns. I have seen many fine photos of the German Army in combat and have never viewed them as propaganda nor do I feel any sympathy for their objectives. It is about the essence of capturing a man in his most important minute of his life.

Slightly Out of Focus (Modern Library War)

Average customer rating:

A Look At The Man Behind The Camera
The Incorrigible Capa
War stories by the famous Bob Capa.
Amazing
Best birthday gift apart from the camera itself

Slightly Out of Focus (Modern Library War)
Robert Capa
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375753966
Release Date: 2001-06-12

Amazon.com

Robert Capa, the great photojournalist who is perhaps best known for his searing images of WWII, infused his autobiography with the same brio and warmth that he expressed in his now classic photographs. "Victory was pleasant and exhausting," the Hungarian-born American notes after the Allies' capture of Tunisia. "During the day in the streets ... we were kissed by hundreds of old women.... We had enough liquor from a captured Gestapo warehouse to keep our singing throats from drying out." Always on the frontlines (he was killed in 1954 in what would later become known as the Vietnam War), Capa went ahead with the parachute invasion of Sicily even though he had been fired from Colliers Weekly--flying in with a squadron of young soldiers he refers to as "boys." When Capa's turn came to jump, he forgot to count "one thousand, two thousand, three thousand" before pulling his cord, instead murmuring, "Fired photographer jumps." "I felt a jerk on my shoulder and my chute was open. 'Fired photographer floats,' I said happily to myself." Stuck dangling in a tree all night, he didn't dare call out for help. "With my Hungarian accent, I stood an equal chance of being shot by either side."

Writing or clicking the shutter, Capa was the perfect conduit for his time, with the war's almost casual heroism, palpable danger, and the importance of every moment of life--whether lying in a foxhole or shopping in London at Dunhill's for a silver flask. Slightly Out of Focus is dotted with his pictures, including the most famous ones of the D day invasion. "I am a gambler," Capa writes. "I decided to go in with Company E in the first wave." Capa's priceless, self-deprecating text tells much, and his photographs show the rest: how thin the Europeans were in Italy, France, and Germany, for example, trim as saplings from years of deprivation. And then there's Capa's famous series showing the plump Frenchwoman, a German collaborator, marked for shame by her shaved head, hurrying past her taunting neighbors, all of whom are gaunt by comparison.

This is a war book, of course, but it will transfix documentary photographers. And this Modern Library edition, which links Capa with such great writers as Ernest Hemingway (whom he photographed wounded), confers suitable honor on his earthy genius. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

In 1942, a dashing young man who liked nothing so much as a heated game of poker, a good bottle of scotch, and the company of a pretty girl hopped a merchant ship to England. He was Robert Capa, the brilliant and daring photojournalist, and Collier's magazine had put him on assignment to photograph the war raging in Europe. In these pages, Capa recounts his terrifying journey through the darkest battles of World War II and shares his memories of the men and women of the Allied forces who befriended, amused, and captivated him along the way. His photographs are masterpieces -- John G. Morris, Magnum Photos' first executive editor, called Capa "the century's greatest battlefield photographer" -- and his writing is by turns riotously funny and deeply moving.

From Sicily to London, Normandy to Algiers, Capa experienced some of the most trying conditions imaginable, yet his compassion and wit shine on every page of this book. Charming and profound, Slightly Out of Focus is a marvelous memoir told in words and pictures by an extraordinary man.

Customer Reviews:

A Look At The Man Behind The Camera.......2004-10-07

In the world of combat photography, the name Robert Capa occupies the apex. Having covered four major wars, his photos are not only a testament to his skill with a lens, but also serve as an excellent illustrated record of the 20th century.

Aside from being a remarkable photographer, Capa is also quite adept with the pen. Slightly Out of Focus is a brilliant illustration of Capa's multifacited skills as a journalist.

Beginning in 1942, Capa, a Hungarian exile, describes his life as a "potential enemy alien" living in New York City and the subsequent difficulties of trying to attain passage to the European theatre. These biographical snippets lend an interesting take on Capa the man; aspects all too often over-powered by his fame as a photographer.

Once arrived in Europe, Capa creates an interesting tale of love and adventure. Originally, Slightly Out of Focus was to serve as screen play. As such, Focus is based on actual events, but tinted with imagination in order to be better suited for Hollywood. Nevertheless, the work is historically accurate and Capa's insights of World War II cut to the quick.

Interestingly, Capa views the World War II experience as enlightening and generally good. Rarely are there the melancholy sentiments that color other war memoirs, (i.e. famed combat photographer Tim Page). The exception being a brief allusion to bearing witness to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. An instance where Capa chose not to click the shutter.

I would be curious to discover more of Capa's writings regarding his time spent covering other conflicts, namely the Arab-Israeli War and the first Indochina war.

As a successful newspaperman, Capa wrote a number of articles to accompany his pictures.

Although his photos have always retained their cutting edge brilliance, I often wonder if his observations and opinions changed with age, and the nature of these other conflicts. Sadly, Capa died doing what he did best, providing us at home with a glimpse of the emotions and moments of war. Thankfully, his photos will remain eternal.

The Incorrigible Capa.......2003-12-02

Slightly Out of Focus, the autobiography by legendary photographer Robert Capa, chronicles his experiences as a photographer for Collier's and Life magazines during World War II. Capa's adventure takes him from his comfortable bed in New York, across the Atlantic, into the African desert, to the beaches of Normandy and the liberation of Paris, through Germany, and finally to a posh London apartment where his journey ends. The book is a delightful read. Over 100 of Capa's breathtaking and thought provoking photographs are scattered throughout its pages. Slightly Out of Focus is ridiculously easy to read. Capa's conversational style and witty banter result in a story that feels more like your favorite novel, than the biography of a war correspondent. The memoirs span only 232 pages, but fully encompass the blood, sweat, and tears shed during the most gruesome war in American history.

Capa throws no punches when he puts his thoughts and experiences into words. He is gut wrenchingly open, honest, and human about himself and the war that he photographs. He accurately shows the not so glamorous, unromantic side of front-line journalism in stories about being too broke to pay his bills, sleeping in bed-bug infested houses, driving for hours over empty deserts, contracting malaria, bureaucratic red tape, and eventually giving up the woman of his dreams to continue photographing the war. Capa is honest enough to admit to all of this and wrote, "I began to dislike this war. The life of a war correspondent wasn't so romantic."

Capa put his life in danger countless times in the book, each time in the quest for the perfect photo that said everything and each time narrowly escaping death. While in Africa, he accidentally wandered into a mine field and had to wait for hours to be rescued. Later, the division that Capa was traveling with was bombed during the night. Capa described it as, "Next morning, when I woke up, there wasn't any tent over me. The camp had been bombed during the night. The blasts had blown away all the tents, although no one was hurt. I was the object of envy and admiration for having slept through it all without stirring." During his time in Europe, Capa joined in the Normandy invasion and parachuted out of planes. Soon after he began, Capa gave up trying to be an impartial observer and assisted in rescuing and transporting wounded soldiers during some of the fiercest fighting. He slept in fox holes, ate C-rations, and helped bury fallen soldiers.

In Slightly Out of Focus, we learn as much about Capa as we do about the war. He unashamedly allows us a constant view into his psyche. It offers a refreshing and helpful glimpse into the struggles of an embedded journalist. He admits when he is frightened, tired, apathetic, angry, or even happy. He talks often in the book of becoming tired of the sickeningly violent monotony that is war. "They were simple pictures and showed how dreary and unspectacular life fighting actually is. The correspondent's war neurosis was setting in...my pictures were sad and empty as the war, and I didn't feel like sending them to the magazine."

In spite of the inherent death and depression of war, Capa finds the everyday humor in extraordinary experiences. Just when the book seems too intense, he makes a witty remark or points out the weakness in human folly and makes you chuckle. He allows you to take the pill of war down without having to dissipate the cold, hard facts, by giving the reader a spoon full of sugar at the same time.

The love story of Capa and "Pinky" (a.k.a. Elaine Justin) also provides a breakup between intense battles. Capa maintains a lighthearted feel in the book by alternating chapters of fighting and death with chapters of his humorous roller-coaster romance. In the end "Pinky" gives up on Capa because, by covering the war instead of being with her, he finally chose between his two great loves. Capa begins and ends the book with the same line, "There is absolutely no reason to get up in the mornings anymore." The reader understands finally, on the 232nd page, that Capa lives to cover wars. In his mind, being a war correspondent isn't a job, it is a destiny. When he isn't covering a war, he is lost, restless, and aimless.

Slightly Out of Focus is jewel deserving five stars. Capa has effectively created a book that captures the feeling of World War II while making it palatable to the average reader. He educates and entertains. The work is believable and down to earth, revealing a transparency uncommon to most authors, but welcomed by readers. In this work, Capa proves himself to be far more than a great photographer. In the words of Capa's good friend, Pulitzer Prize winner John Hersey, "He has humor. He has a clear idea of what makes a great picture: `it is a cut of the whole event,' he says, `which will show more of the real truth of the affair to someone who was not there than the whole scene.' Above all-and this is what shows in his pictures-Capa, who has spent so much energy on inventions for his own person, has deep human sympathy for men and women trapped in reality."

War stories by the famous Bob Capa........2002-08-12

This is Capa's story of his World War II. Capa was a famous photographer from the Spanish Civil War, who applied his skills in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. For a photographer, his stories are very good and enjoyable. Like one of the previous reviewer, I have to agree that Capa does not reveal much of himself. If you take his stories, he appears to be an alcoholic and irresponsible. His photos though are world famous.
These stories are great to read and the book is not long. This is good Sunday reading.

Amazing.......2002-04-19

When I think of the founders of Magnum I see larger than life heros that are always in the right place at the right time for the perfect picture. Not only does this book show that Capa is not larger than life, but a very real man, but he also worked very hard to be at the right place at the right time...not to mention he spent much of his life at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Best birthday gift apart from the camera itself.......2001-03-17

Not overridden with anecdotes of war zones and the battlefield, Capa comes across as incredibly human from the observer's perspective during the years of conflict. Sensitive, witty, charming, and driven, he is truly fantastic and remarkable a storyteller with words as he is with a camera.

Average customer rating:

Capa Photographs
The Bravest War Photographer of All Time...
Pure empathy
Amazing photographs

Robert Capa: Photographs
Robert Capa
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394544218
Release Date: 1985-08-12

Amazon.com

Robert Capa, whose images of the Spanish Civil War brought home the hideous suffering of that conflict and brought Capa international fame, is the 20th century's most accomplished photographer of warfare. This collection of Capa's work demonstrates that he was more than a war photographer: he was a master of depicting ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances. The volume includes an essay by Cornell Capa, the photographer's brother and the founder of the International Center for Photography, as well as a foreword by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Book Description

Robert Capa: Photographs is the first true retrospective book of one of the century's greatest photographers. Drawing upon hundreds of previously unseen images, this collection reveals Capa as one of the great poets of the camera. In these photographs, we see through the eyes of a driven humanist who was also a documentarian of the highest caliber. While previous volumes on Capa have focused on his role as a war photographer, Robert Capa: Photographs shows us the remarkable range of his work, which encompasses the sufferings as well as the tenderness, humor and wonder of his subjects.

Robert Capa demonstrated not only a passionate commitment to improving the human condition, but also an unfailing eye for graphic impact. Although his photographs remain the definitive visual records of such momentous events as the siege of Madrid, the bombing of Hankou, and the Allied landings on D-day, many of his images have a timeless and universal quality that transcends the specifics of history. A Spanish soldier recoils at the impact of a bullet, the final instant of his life. In a scene of perfect joy, a group of Chinese children laugh at the sky as snow begins to fall. Four farm workers, hauling all the belongings they can manage, trudge grimly away from an apocalyptic backdrop of smoke and ruins: their war-devastated homes.

Capa's images reveal his profound compassion and perceptiveness about our tenuous human state. As Cornell Capa (Robert's younger brother and the Founding Director Emeritus of the International Center of Photography) writes in his eloquent remembrance: "He managed to travel all over the world, and to communicate his experience and feelings through a universal language: photography." Robert Capa: Photographs also includes a foreword by Capa's close friend Henri Cartier-Bresson, as well as an informative historical essay by Capa biographer Richard Whelan.

At last, here is the book that reveals Robert Capa in a new light. The extraordinary collection of images in Robert Capa: Photographs brings us--through the events of history--to the very heart of humanity.

Customer Reviews:

Capa Photographs.......2006-03-26

This is a beautiful book by one of the great photographers who shot his dramatic photos right at the frontline of wars. His years in Paris, his friendship and photos of the giants of European art and cultur reflects the recognition he received from his contemporaries. His tragic death in Vietnam was a great loss for everyone interested in his art!

The Bravest War Photographer of All Time..........2005-09-27

Frank Capa (born Endre Friedmann in 1913) was known as the 'Greatest War-Photographer in the World" when he died in 1954. As a teen, he planned a career as a reporter. Journalsim, he thought, would enable him to combine his loves of politics and literature. In the spring of 1936, he adopted the name Robert Capa, the name of an alter ego, the imaginary character of a glamorous American photographer.

He photographed five wars from '36 to '54. The first was the Spanish Civil War. He'd been sent to Madrid to photograph Juan de la Cierva who, in 1923, had invented a forerunner of the helicopter. He stayed on in Spain because he felt an affinity with the warmth, exuberance, and generosity of the Spanish people. He went to Barcelona, (a penpal in the Fifties came from that area, Sabadell, and was a mill worker who learned his English from American sailors and Frank Sinatra records.), Andalucia, and Cordoba.

General Francisco Franco launched a civil war in July, 1936, which changed Spain forever. He had the courage of his convictions and his photos show a compassionate study of people under extreme stress. He was a photographer of people, which is the opposite of me, as I choose buildings, things, birs, animals, historic places and such for my amateur picture taking.

Unlike his friend Ernest Hemingway, he never felt he had to prove his courage to himself or to anyone else. He was intent on making better pictures, at great risk to his safety. Unlike Hemingway, he was very much a gentleman of the old school, coming from Europe, and "gentlemen don't brag." He believed that one shouldn't tempt fate by bragging.

On the battlefields of Spain, he learned that soldiers use theri terrible weapons of mass destruction only because they have been brainwashed into the ability to 'conceptualize' their victims not as individuals but as a category -- the 'enemy.'

He died in Indochina when he stepped on aa nati-personnel land mine. He was buried by his mother in a Quaker cemetery instead of Arlington National Cemetery, which was an offer she refused.

Pure empathy.......2003-06-01

Ordinary people caught under extraordinary circumstances are what give these images the power that they have and elicit pure empathy from the viewer. Robert Capa earned his place in photographic history and left behind a body of work for us to consider...

Amazing photographs.......1999-08-10

This book has some really amazing photography, they have a really powerful message. I like photos that make me feel something and Robert Capa's photos difinatly do that. Robert Capa was in the right place and the right time with alot of his photos. The only thing the book lacked i feel is more background on the photos.

Average customer rating:

The Concerned Photographer
Cornell; Bishof, Kertesz, Robert Capa, Freed, Sey Capa
Manufacturer: Grossman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BYG608

Average customer rating:

It's okay
AS GOOD AS IT GETS
hatchet job
superb - the best account yet

Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa
Alex Kershaw
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312315643

Amazon.com

"It does seem to me that Capa has proved beyond all doubt that the camera need not be a cold mechanical device," John Steinbeck wrote of photojournalist Robert Capa in a quote that launches this well-written, exhaustively researched biography. "Like the pen, it is as good as the man who uses it. It can be the extension of mind and heart." That's quite a compliment coming from an author like Steinbeck, but then Capa won the respect and friendship of some of the brightest talents of his generation; other admirers and poker buddies included Ernest Hemingway and John Huston, and among his many loves was actress Ingrid Bergman. Capa won fame slogging through the blood and grime to capture vivid images of five different wars, from the Spanish Civil War (where he wasn't above staging some of his photographs), through the landings at Omaha Beach on D-Day (which he chronicled for Life magazine as the only journalist to wade ashore with the first wave of G.I.s), to the early days of the Vietnam conflict (where he was killed in action at the age of 41 while covering the French army, soon to be replaced with disastrous results by the Americans). Born a Hungarian Jew named André Friedmann, another great writer, John Hersey, famously dubbed the swarthy chain-smoking photographer "the Man Who Invented Himself," and author Alex Kershaw contends that one of his greatest achievements was the legend that he created for himself. A California journalist who contributes to The Guardian and The Sunday Times Magazine, among others, Kershaw brings Capa and his times to life with bright, vivid writing and telling anecdotes, using a fascinating personal odyssey to put the man's professional accomplishments in perspective. "Capa was the first photographer to make photojournalism appear glamorous and sexy," he writes. Of course, that distinction and all others take a back seat to the photos themselves, and this book's only shortcoming is that it does not include any examples of the great man's work.--Jim DeRogatis

Book Description

Blood and Champagne is a fitting title for a biography of Robert Capa. Friend of Hemingway, Steinbeck, and John Huston, lover of beautiful women (including Hollywood icon Ingrid Bergman), Capa lived a life filled with equal parts glamour and danger. The best of combat photographers, his assignments pulled him into the worst fighting of the Spanish Civil War, the landings at Normandy, paratrooper missions over Holland, and the first years of the Indochina conflict, where he was killed in l954 at age forty-one. When still in his thirties he helped found the Magnum photo agency and was known to generals and bartenders, politicians, gamblers, and movie stars. Yet no one knew that Capa was not even his real name, and that his greatest artistic achievement may well have been himself.

Customer Reviews:

It's okay.......2007-09-14

Capa is one of the romantic characters of journalism, a free spirit with an insatiable appetite for risk-taking, alcohol, cigarettes and women. That he died at age 40 in the line of duty as a war photographer has only embellished his image. These are the facts we have known about Capa for decades, reported nicely in Whelan's biography in the 1980's. This book doesn't expand on this information very much.

If you leave out the sections about the famous women he bedded, this would be a much shorter book. It's tawdry in that regard but that does keep the book rolling along. Overall, it's not a bad biography of Capa. It does seem to me to borrow heavily from Whelan's biography and from Capa's own book "Slightly Out Of Focus". If you're familiar with those books, there are no new revelations here.

I do take issue with one small point. Capa is constantly referred to as having Leicas dangling around his neck, using Leicas on assignments and holding Leicas. While I do not doubt Capa used Leicas--along with other brands of cameras--during his career, Kershaw's repeated references are tedious. This is especially true when one considers that Capa is closely identified with the now defunct 35mm Zeiss Contax, he used Contax cameras during the D-Day invasion and he was using Contax cameras at the time of his death in Indochina in 1954. In fact, the two photographs in Kershaw's book that show Capa with a camera "dangling around his neck" actually show him with Contax cameras, not Leicas.

That small point is indeed small, however, it begs the question of how correct the other information might be. Of course biographies are often based on hearsay and ancedotal information, the veracity of which is open to interpretation. Maybe Kershaw was just invoking creative license and using Leica as metaphor. It's not a point any non-photographer reader would even notice. Still, I find it a little troubling.

Overall, this is a decent but derivative sketch of Capa.

AS GOOD AS IT GETS.......2004-01-16

This book is a story, told to be thrilling and informative and will stand the test of time as the best book written about the trade of war photography. It should be a film because the action and character development are well plotted. And if you want to know, close up, about the great moments of the last century, then here is a ring-side seat on history in the making too. Inspiring stuff. If only there were more biographies written like this.

hatchet job.......2003-10-27

An exceptionally nasty hatchet job, sloppily written, relying heavily on the authorized biography by Robert Whelan. Not surprisingly, Cornell Capa, the biographee's brother and custodian of his heritage refused cooperation, even to the extent of denying the use crucial photos, with this author.

superb - the best account yet.......2003-08-28

A great, cinematic read - a shame that the estate did not allow photographs, but they never will. Yet this book is so vivid and esxciting that you don't notice the images not being there - you see them in your head. Really tremendous research, so much more objective than the authorized hagiographer Whelan's account, and this will one day be a movie - it just feels so right. A great, great tale told very well by Kershaw. Best bio on a photographer ever written.

A Russian Journal (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Average customer rating:

Photo quality in the 1999 edition is poor
A story about both Russia and about two journalists
Entertaining travel story
Post-war Russia through very talented eyes
In the wake of the War

A Russian Journal (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141180196

Customer Reviews:

Photo quality in the 1999 edition is poor.......2006-08-16

This is a great book. I am a frequent visitor to Russia and I enjoyed the oportunity to compare and contrast Russia today with postwar Russia under Stalin. Unfortunately, Robert Capa's photos in the 1999 paperback are small and muddy. I could not even recognize places that I have visited many times. This book was a collaborative effort, but the 1999 printing seriously short changes Capa's contribution.

I don't know if the images are better in the 2001 paperback, but after reading the 1999 edition I got a copy of the 1948 hardback via Amazon. I recommend that you do the same if you want to fully enjoy this excellent work.

A story about both Russia and about two journalists.......2003-11-22

I read this book after returning home from a two week trip in Southwestern Russia. Steinbeck and Capa took their journey in 1948. They travel from Moscow to Volgograd and Rostov before turning back in Georgia. Much of the tension in this book springs from the rapidly cooling relationship between leaders of Russia and the United States at that point in time.

Their aim is not political. They seek to understand the hearts of the Soviet people. One of the amusing elements of this book is their regular conflict with the Soviet censors, who refuse to believe that they do not have political motives. Steinbeck intersperses the commentary on Russia with the nuts and bolts of their daily travels. The method mirrors the approach of his 1940 collaboration in the Gulf of California, "The Log from the Sea of Cortez." Steinbeck likes to write about the universal character of people and this trip to Russia or his previous trip in Mexico both speak to that interest. His conclusion is that Russians are like people anywhere else - they are proud of their homes and their families and are sincere in their efforts to build their nascent country. Steinbeck also goes to pains to elicit the hope among the Russian people for peace.

Many of the things that catch their eye remain constant to now. One interesting change is the perspective of the Russian people about the direction of their country. In Steinbeck's recollection, the people recognize that they are sacrificing for the good of their country. In 1948, the Russians expect that they will eventually gain from their hard work. Now they seem to have less faith.

This book is a great chance to learn about the personality of the world famous Robert Capa. During his travels with the Hungarian photojournalist, Steinbeck gets pretty pesky about Capa's personal habits. It seems that Capa likes long baths, other people's books, and morning silence. Steinbeck and Capa share rooms during their trip. I really enjoyed the secondary theme that develops on Capa's behavior.

Everyone should read this book, not just people who want to know about Russia.

Entertaining travel story.......2003-01-29

This is a great road trip story . . . that just happens to be set in Russia (and elsewhere in the Soviet Union). It is an amusing and thoughtful account of Steinbeck's travels with his good friend Robert Capa. As Steinbeck often noted in his works of nonfiction, he recounts merely what he saw, which may or may not be reflective of the experiences of others. Thus this is far more a narrative about two men traveling together than it is a book about Russia. Steinbeck does not seek to unravel the mysteries of Russia; he merely wishes to take a peek behind the curtain to get a glimpse of how its inhabitants live.

This is a very amusing, thoughtful and readable book - the best Steinbeck I've read.

Post-war Russia through very talented eyes.......2001-09-08

This wonderfully written book takes you through post-war Soviet Union, to farms and cities devastated by war but struggling to return to normalcy. Robert Capa not only adds wonderful photos but his role in this story is both funny and illuminating for any Capa fans. Written in the late 1940s, the story provides us with a very human side of the Russian people. The openness and friendliness of everyone they meet contrasts with the paranoia and hatred so present in the US at that time.

I read this as both a photographer and one who was recently in Russia and the insight provided was very enjoyable and educating. Capa's mannerisms and method of photography allowed his subjects to open up and feel comfortable in his lens -- not an easy thing since so many of the people had lost family and suffered terribly. Steinbeck's writing is honest, funny and his skills as a non-partisan reporter really shine in this work.

In the wake of the War.......2000-12-06

Three years after the end of the War, John Steinbeck and photographer Robert Capa made a sweeping journey through the USSR. The countryside and cities were still ravaged by the war, transportation difficult over devastated roads and rails. Shattered tanks and warplanes still littered the landscape. Every family had been touched by the conflict and their everyday life recorded in this memoir was adversely affected by the years of occupation and struggle. But the resilient Soviet people were rebuilding, and in the midst of hardship they welcomed the Western journalists into their homes and lives. This is not a book about political ideology. Steinbeck's elegant writing and Capa's brilliant photography capture the spirit of a people working heroically to restore their homeland but still taking a little time out to have fun. For anyone interested in the human dimension of the War on the Eastern Front, "A Russian Journal" will give an unforgetable impression of its recent aftermath.

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