Thousands of Spanish Civil War Photos Discovered in Mexico
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| | Robert Capa’s The Falling Soldier. Photo – EFE. | | |
127 rolls of previously unseen negatives by the legendary photo journalist, Robert Capa
Thousands of negatives of photos taken by the world famous photo journalist, Robert Capa, of the Spanish Civil War are now in the hands of the Capa estate, after years of lying hidden in Mexico. One of Capa’s most famous images of the Spanish Civil War was his shot of the death of a Republican soldier, known as ‘The Falling Soldier.’
All previously unseen by the public, the three boxes of 127 rolls of negatives – 3,500 photos - also include shots by Gerda Taro, Capa’s professional partner, and David Seymour, the photographer who is known as ‘Chim.’ The news of the discovery was reported by the New York Times and El Periódico de Catalunya on Sunday.
They were left behind in Capa’s Paris darkroom when he fled Europe for the United States in 1939. They made their way to Mexico in the hands of a Mexican general, Francisco Javier Aguilar González, who was a diplomat in France at the time, and were only discovered in the 1990s in the possessions he left to his heirs. Capa had thought right up until he died on assignment in Vietnam in 1954 that the negatives were lost during the German invasion of France.
Years of negotiations took place before they were handed over last month to the International Centre of Photography in New York, founded by Capa’s brother. Brian Wallis, chief curator at the IPC, said it was like discovering the ‘Holy Grail.’
It’s understood the boxes contain a series of the Spanish communist leader, Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria. |
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Vallarta Living | Art Talk | January 2008 
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