Robert Capa

Robert Capa

War time picture  

Robert Capa is best known for his war-time photography.  He worked tirelessly to cover five different wars, including World War II.  Capa was one of the co-founders, along with Cartier-Bresson, of Magnum Photos.

Not only was Capa a great photographer, he was also a fantastic business man.  His name is actually Endre Friedman.  He and an associate decided to form a partnership in which he would take the pictures and do the dark room work, the associate would do the marketing and sales, and they would credit “Robert Capa” as being the photographer.  They found that they could get a much higher price in selling the pictures to the newspaper if they sold the photos under the made-up name “Robert Capa” and inventing the story that he was a rich man. Fraudulent?  Probably.  Did it work?  Definitely.  You can see Capa’s photography here.

What you can learn from famous photographer Robert Capa: Capa is frequently quoted as saying, ”If your picture isn’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”  This was significant because he was a combat photographer!  He was known for literally getting down in the trenches with the soldiers to take photos, rather than taking photos from a distance as was the common practice.  So, if i get close to the action and my photos will improve.