Gerda Taro
Encyclopedia
Gerda Taro was born into a Polish Jewish family living in Germany. She became a war photographer, and the companion and professional partner of photographer Robert Capa
. Taro is regarded often as the first female photojournalist
to cover the front lines of a war and to die while doing so.
, into a middle-class Jewish Polish
family. Pohorylle attended a Swiss
boarding school
.
In 1929 the family moved to Leipzig
, just prior to the beginning of Nazi Germany. Taro opposed the Nazi Party, joining leftist groups. In 1933, she was arrested and detained for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda. Eventually, the entire Pohorylle household was forced to leave Nazi Germany toward different destinations. Taro would not see her family again.
's Germany anti Semitism, Pohorylle moved to Paris in 1934. In 1935, she met the photojournalist Endre Friedmann
, a Hungarian Jew, becoming his personal assistant and learning photography. They fell in love. Taro began to work for Alliance Photo as a picture editor
.
In 1936, Taro received her first photojournalist credential. Then, both she and Friedmann devised a plan. Both took news photographs, but these were sold as the production of the nonexistent American photographer Robert Capa (after Frank Capra
), which was a convenient name overcoming the increasing political intolerance which predominated in Europe and belonging in the well rewarding American market. The secretiveness of the maneuver did not last long, but Friedman kept the more commercial name "Capa" for his own name, and Pohorylle adopted the professional name of "Gerda Taro" after the Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto and Swedish actress Greta Garbo
. The two worked together to cover the events surrounding the arrival to power of the Popular Front
in the 1930s in France.
broke out (1936), Gerda Taro travelled to Barcelona
, Spain, to cover the events with Capa. Taro acquired the nickname of la pequeña rubia ("the little blonde"). They covered the war together at northeastern Aragon
and at the southern Córdoba. Always together under the common, bogus signature of Robert Capa, they were successful through many important publications (the Swiss Züricher Illustrierte, the French Vu
). Their early war photos are distinguishable since Taro used a Rollei
camera
which rendered squared photographs while Capa produced rectangular Leica pictures. However, for some time in 1937 they produced similar 135 film
pictures together under the label of Capa&Taro.
Subsequently, Taro attained some independence. She refused Capa's marriage proposal. Also, she became publicly related to the circle of anti fascist
European intellectuals (Ernest Hemingway
, George Orwell
) who crusaded particularly for the Spanish Republic. The Ce Soir, a leftist newspaper of France, signed her for publishing Taro's works only. Then, she began to commercialize her production under the Photo Taro label. Regards
, Life
, Illustrated London News
and Volks-Illustrierte were amongst those publications.
Reporting the Valencia bombing alone, Gerda Taro attained the photographs which are her most celebrated. Also, in July 1937, Taro's photographs were in demand by the international press when, alone, she was covering the Brunete
region near Madrid
for Ce Soir. Although the Nationalist propaganda claimed that the region was under its control, the Republican forces
had in fact forced that faction out. Taro's camera was the only testimony of the actual situation.
, Taro hopped onto the footboard of a car that was carrying wounded soldiers when a Republican tank collided into its side. Taro suffered critical wounds and died the next day, July 26, 1937.
The circumstances of Taro's death have been questioned by British journalist Robin Stummer, writing in the New Statesman
magazine. Stummer cited Willy Brandt
, later Chancellor of West Germany, and a friend of Taro's during the Spanish Civil War, that she had been the victim of the Stalinist purge of Communists and Socialists in Spain not aligned to Moscow. However, Stummer provided no other evidence for this claim.
In an interview with the Spanish daily El País, a nephew of a Republican soldier at the Battle of Brunete explained that she had died in an accident. According to the eye-witness account, she had been run over by a reversing tank and she died from her wounds in El Goloso English hospital a few hours later.
Due to her political commitment, Taro had become an anti-fascist figure. On August 1, on what would have been her 27th birthday, the French Communist Party
gave her a grand funeral in Paris, buried her at Père Lachaise Cemetery
, and commissioned Alberto Giacometti
to create a monument for her grave.
On 26 September 2007, the International Center of Photography
opened the first major U.S. exhibition of Taro's photographs.
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
. Taro is regarded often as the first female photojournalist
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
to cover the front lines of a war and to die while doing so.
Early life
Gerta Pohorylle was born in 1910, in StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, into a middle-class Jewish Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
family. Pohorylle attended a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
.
In 1929 the family moved to Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, just prior to the beginning of Nazi Germany. Taro opposed the Nazi Party, joining leftist groups. In 1933, she was arrested and detained for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda. Eventually, the entire Pohorylle household was forced to leave Nazi Germany toward different destinations. Taro would not see her family again.
France
Escaping HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Germany anti Semitism, Pohorylle moved to Paris in 1934. In 1935, she met the photojournalist Endre Friedmann
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
, a Hungarian Jew, becoming his personal assistant and learning photography. They fell in love. Taro began to work for Alliance Photo as a picture editor
Picture Editor
A picture editor, sometimes known as a photo editor, is a professional who collects, reviews, and chooses photographs and/or illustrations for publication in alignment with preset guidelines. Publications include, but are not limited to, websites, books, magazines, newspapers, art galleries, museum...
.
In 1936, Taro received her first photojournalist credential. Then, both she and Friedmann devised a plan. Both took news photographs, but these were sold as the production of the nonexistent American photographer Robert Capa (after Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
), which was a convenient name overcoming the increasing political intolerance which predominated in Europe and belonging in the well rewarding American market. The secretiveness of the maneuver did not last long, but Friedman kept the more commercial name "Capa" for his own name, and Pohorylle adopted the professional name of "Gerda Taro" after the Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto and Swedish actress Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
. The two worked together to cover the events surrounding the arrival to power of the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
in the 1930s in France.
Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
broke out (1936), Gerda Taro travelled to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain, to cover the events with Capa. Taro acquired the nickname of la pequeña rubia ("the little blonde"). They covered the war together at northeastern Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
and at the southern Córdoba. Always together under the common, bogus signature of Robert Capa, they were successful through many important publications (the Swiss Züricher Illustrierte, the French Vu
VU
- Country codes :* VU is the country code of Vanuatu* .vu is Vanuatu's country code top-level domain- Companies :* Air Ivoire, IATA airline designator* Vivendi Universal, now Vivendi SA, a French company active in media and communications- Music :...
). Their early war photos are distinguishable since Taro used a Rollei
Rollei
Rollei is a German manufacturer of optical goods founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras...
camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
which rendered squared photographs while Capa produced rectangular Leica pictures. However, for some time in 1937 they produced similar 135 film
135 film
The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...
pictures together under the label of Capa&Taro.
Subsequently, Taro attained some independence. She refused Capa's marriage proposal. Also, she became publicly related to the circle of anti fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
European intellectuals (Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
) who crusaded particularly for the Spanish Republic. The Ce Soir, a leftist newspaper of France, signed her for publishing Taro's works only. Then, she began to commercialize her production under the Photo Taro label. Regards
Regards
Regards is a French news magazine. Created in 1932 as a Communist title, it is primarily known for photojournalism, and pre-dated other pictorial magazines such as Life and Paris-Match...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Illustrated London News
Illustrated London News
The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper; the first issue appeared on Saturday 14 May 1842. It was published weekly until 1971 and then increasingly less frequently until publication ceased in 2003.-History:...
and Volks-Illustrierte were amongst those publications.
Reporting the Valencia bombing alone, Gerda Taro attained the photographs which are her most celebrated. Also, in July 1937, Taro's photographs were in demand by the international press when, alone, she was covering the Brunete
Brunete
Brunete is a town outside Madrid, Spain. There was a major battle fought there during the Spanish Civil War. The battle, while a stalemate, was seen as a tactical victory for the Spanish Nationalist Forces. Francisco Franco is known to have gone hunting there during his rule.It is located...
region near Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
for Ce Soir. Although the Nationalist propaganda claimed that the region was under its control, the Republican forces
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
had in fact forced that faction out. Taro's camera was the only testimony of the actual situation.
Death
During her coverage of the Republican army retreat at the Battle of BruneteBattle of Brunete
The Battle of Brunete , fought 15 miles west of Madrid, was a Republican attempt to alleviate the pressure exerted by the Nationalists on the capital and on the north during the Spanish Civil War...
, Taro hopped onto the footboard of a car that was carrying wounded soldiers when a Republican tank collided into its side. Taro suffered critical wounds and died the next day, July 26, 1937.
The circumstances of Taro's death have been questioned by British journalist Robin Stummer, writing in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
magazine. Stummer cited Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, later Chancellor of West Germany, and a friend of Taro's during the Spanish Civil War, that she had been the victim of the Stalinist purge of Communists and Socialists in Spain not aligned to Moscow. However, Stummer provided no other evidence for this claim.
In an interview with the Spanish daily El País, a nephew of a Republican soldier at the Battle of Brunete explained that she had died in an accident. According to the eye-witness account, she had been run over by a reversing tank and she died from her wounds in El Goloso English hospital a few hours later.
Due to her political commitment, Taro had become an anti-fascist figure. On August 1, on what would have been her 27th birthday, the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
gave her a grand funeral in Paris, buried her at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
, and commissioned Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...
to create a monument for her grave.
On 26 September 2007, the International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
opened the first major U.S. exhibition of Taro's photographs.
External links
- "International Center of Photography Holds First Major Exhibition of Taro's Work", New York Times, 22 September 2007.
- New Statesman story on circumstances of death - http://www.newstatesman.com/arts-and-culture/2008/10/gerda-taro-war-spain