Saturday 20 July 2013

Capa: Pressing the Button

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did read Blood and Champagne (2002), by Alex Kershaw, a biography of the war photographer Robert Capa. I found it on a charity table in the medieval barn at Coggeshall.  The story told is also eventful enough. Capa was always gambling, drinking, picking up women, or trying to get his head blown off, which he finally did. The book does not contain a single one of his photos, even those which are discussed, which is rather an omission. I will have to get another book with them, I suppose. There is not much technical analysis of his work, though I deduce from comments here and there that he basically got as close as possible and pressed the button. There are no cats in the book. The writing and references are workmanlike; some of the Hungarian names are wrong and he has an odd habit of referring to Hungarian Jews as "Slavic". But I found it a good little read.

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