Consultants Declare Gerda Taro Took ‘The Falling Soldier’, Not Robert Capa

Robert Capa’s The Falling Soldier {photograph} has been mired in controversy for many years, dogged by claims that it was staged and that Capa falsified the caption data. Despite this, it stays an iconic picture within the pantheon of photojournalism.

Taken through the Spanish Civil War on September 5, 1936, Capa claimed the photograph depicted the second a Republican soldier was shot within the head by a “fascist bullet” as he charged ahead through the Battle of Cerro Muriano. It triggered a sensation when it was revealed in LIFE journal.

However, it has been long-established that the {photograph} wasn’t taken on Cerro Muriano. In 2009, José Manuel Susperregui concluded that the photograph was taken about 30 miles away close to Espejo, the place no battle was happening on the day it was taken.

It wasn’t uncommon for images to be staged through the Spanish Civil War, a battle that restricted struggle photographers’ entry to the entrance.

Did Gerda Taro Take ‘The Falling Soldier’?

These theories have taken a long time to return out, however now there’s one other one rising: that Robert Capa didn’t even take the {photograph}.

In a latest interview with The Telegraph, archeologist and historian Fernando Penco, who’s curating an exhibition on the University of Córdoba to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the {photograph}, says he’s “convinced” that it was Gerda Taro, Capa’s lover and collaborator, who took the photograph.

Penco factors to the International Center of Photography in New York, which holds the Capa Archive, and revealed final yr that The Falling Soldier was made on a medium-format 6×6 digicam.

On that specific day, Capa shot with a 35mm Leica, whereas Taro shot with a Reflex Korelle 6×6 digicam. Penco says he has even discovered images of Taro holding her Reflex Korelle on the identical day the photograph was taken.

“For me, everything hinged on one premise,” Penco tells The Telegraph. “If the photo was taken with the Reflex Korelle, we would have to seriously reconsider whether Taro took it.”

While the unfavourable for The Falling Soldier has by no means been discovered, Penco says all different square-format images that exist from Espejo that day have been attributed to Taro.

“I have found photographs taken by Capa with Taro holding her Reflex Korelle earlier that day in Villa del Río, from where they headed off to the front. Taken together, I think this is strong proof that it was she who took The Falling Soldier,” says Penco.

Taro and Capa labored carefully collectively after assembly in Paris in 1935. In truth, Robert Capa was initially a fictional photographer invented by the 2 Jewish immigrants fleeing the Nazis. The pair wished a extra American-sounding identify so they might promote into the profitable U.S. market. Eventually, Capa, who was born Endre Friedmann, absolutely assumed the identify Capa, whereas Taro, who was born Gerta Pohorylle, adopted Gerda Taro.

Last week, a film about Taro premiered on the Venice Film Festival. Taro died whereas masking the Spanish Civil War; she is believed to be the primary feminine photojournalist killed whereas masking struggle.