Armed with only a camera

“Robert Capa: World War II Photographs:” March 2-April 17. Exhibit also features WWII artifacts from Luzerne County Historical Society and 4-part lecture series. Opening reception March 2, 5-7 p.m., followed by lecture “Shooting War: Robert Capa’s Life and Work,” 7 p.m. Lectures continue: March 15, 7 p.m. with “The Mediated War: WWII and the Ascent of Photojournalism;” March 22, 7 p.m. with “The Artist at War in the 20th Century;” and March 29, 7 p.m. with “Superman vs. Japan: Fighting World War II in Popular Culture.” Exhibit, lectures, opening reception free and open to the public. Info: 570.674.6250, www.misericordia.edu/art

by Nikki M. Mascali
Weekender Editor

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

This was the motto of photojournalist Robert Capa, and his photographs showed just how much he lived by that motto. His wartime images — from the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 to the 1954 French Indochina War — spoke volumes. They put faces on the soldiers fighting, not only for their own lives, but for the freedom of their countries as well.

Capa showed the world the reality of combat, not just the sometimes staged before-and-after heroics as had been captured in earlier wars via paintings and more cumbersome photography than his 35mm. His photos range from a Spanish loyalist falling after being shot to death to a priest using the hood of a Jeep as an altar to give mass on Omaha Beach to a soldier taking a brief respite after Normandy was liberated from the Germans.

Whatever he shot, Capa got close enough to take photos that still resonate today. He got close enough to change the way the world back home would view wars and conflicts forever. And ultimately, he got close enough to die trying to get one more good picture. That final photo, of troops walking down a grassy road during the 1954 French Indochina War, was taken just before Capa stepped on the landmine that killed him.

Beginning Tuesday, March 2, Misericordia University’s Pauly Friedman Gallery will host 33 of Capa’s World War II photographs. The exhibit will include his iconic images, like the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach, plus other lesser-known images from 1941-1945. “Views of the War: World War II in Art, Film and Photographs,” a four-part lecture series, will be held in conjunction with the exhibit.

“It’s a story of American history,” said Brian Carso, J.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of history at Misericordia and curator of the exhibit.

While working on a research paper on the photographer, Carso spent time at Capa’s archive at the International Center for Photography in New York City going over images, letters and notebooks.

“We brought (the exhibit) to the school because it’s a great opportunity to use these photographs to talk about history, visual arts, journalism, philosophy and religion,” Carso said.

Wartime images changed drastically from the Civil War to World War I, and especially between the two World Wars when technological advances made cameras more portable.

“When you think of Civil War photography, it really followed the convention of paintings. Things were staged, people stood like they were standing for a portrait,” explained Charles H. Duncan, one of the lecturers. “By the time you get to Capa, what’s revolutionary about him is he’s just out there with a small hand-held 35mm camera in the field shooting off these pictures.”

“(With) war photographs from the Civil War to World War I, the nature of the camera itself was big,” Carso said. “Any photograph of war was either preparations before the battle or what the battleground looked like a couple days after the battle. It was technically impossible to take pictures during the battle itself.

“By the 1930s when small cameras were available, and you could take pictures quickly, you also needed somebody willing to go and do that — to go be on the battlefield with the modernized camera. Capa was really the first to do that.”

PART OF WHO HE WAS

Capa was born Endre Erno Friedmann in Budapest, Hungary, in 1913. He fled the country as a teenager after protesting against its fascist regime and moved to Berlin. He originally wanted to be a writer but found work as a photographer instead and went on to adopt the American-sounding name Robert Capa. Once Hitler came into power, Capa fled again.

“He never really settled down anywhere,” Carso said. “He led a fascinating life.”

Capa counted writers like Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck among his friends and dated actress Ingrid Bergman, who tried to get him to settle down in Hollywood following World War II.

“Capa says, ‘That sounds wonderful, but this is who I am. I need to go and take on these dangerous assignments,’” Carso said. “And he goes off to photograph another war. There’s no clear statement of why did he keep going back to wars, but I think that’s part of who he was.”

Though Capa became an American citizen following World War II, he often returned to Europe, particularly its capital cities.

“That’s the same environment where existentialism as a philosophy was taking hold,” Carso said. “He had sort of an existential quality to his photographs. By that, I mean so many of his pictures, much more than any other photographer that shot war, so many focus in on individuals making critical decisions about how they should behave in difficult circumstances.

“The best example, perhaps, are his D-Day pictures of soldiers crawling to shore on the beach. He’s not looking at grand scopes or heroics but individuals in mass warfare, where it’s so easy to have your individual identity consumed.”

TALKING ABOUT WAR

Carso will give the first lecture, “Shooting War: Robert Capa’s Life and Work” Tuesday, March 2, which examines how Capa’s life went on to influence his work.

Beth E. Wilson of State University of New York at New Paltz will present “The Mediated War: WWII and the Ascent of Photojournalism” on Monday, March 15. Wilson will take a broader look at the era and other photojournalists.

Duncan, of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art, will present “The Artist at War in the 20th Century” on Monday, March 22. The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest and most-used resource on the history of art in America, with more than 17 million letters, sketchbooks, journals, photos and more in its collection.

Duncan’s PowerPoint presentation will include the work of soldiers as artists, “as opposed to Norman Rockwell here at home making pictures to support the war,” he said. “These are people with first-hand experiences of war.”

Most pieces consist of painting and drawings, but Duncan will also discuss a journal kept by Horace Pippin, an African-American World War I soldier who lost the use of his right arm during the conflict.

“He would keep these journals and do little sketches and drawings, so those are really valuable documents today,” Duncan said. “It wasn’t until about 10 years after the war ended that he started doing paintings about the war.”

Duncan will end his talk with the artwork of Vietnam soldiers, “which is highly personal and very much out of the mainstream of the art world. Their experience was very different, coming home to a largely unsupportive public. It’s a very different view there.”

The final lecture, “Superman vs. Japan: Fighting World War II in Popular Culture,” will be given by Allan Austin, Ph.D., an assistant professor of history at Misericordia, on Monday, March 29.

CAPA’S CONTROVERSY

Capa has been recognized for revolutionizing war photography, but some of his images have been open to debate, in particular “Falling Soldier.” The image of a soldier being shot to death during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 is striking, but its authenticity has always been questioned, and still is nearly 75 years later. Some historians have said the image was staged, others that the soldier was shot because of Capa, and others that it is genuine. While not one of Capa’s World War II photos, “Falling Solider” will be on display at Misericordia.

“I think there is probably some backstory to it that we don’t know,” Carso said. “I side with those who say it was genuine. Just reading the various accounts, the various evidence. Capa never really spoke about the backstory to the picture, (and) some people suspect that it was his camera that got these people into trouble. I tend to go along with that line of thinking.”

Thanks to his two decades researching Capa, Carso looks forward to bringing his photographs to the university.

“I’ve always been fascinated by them, particularly by him as a photographer because his images are different from so many others,” he said. “His pictures of individuals do have a compelling story to tell, and I think that’s the beauty that comes out of these pictures, the humanity in them.”

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