An exhibition dedicated to photographer Robert Capa opened on March 1st 1999 at the Reina-Sofia museum in Madrid some sixty years after he took the most stunning pictures of the Spanish civil war. Hungarian-born Capa - his real name was Endrei Friedmann- covered the Spanish civil war as a reporter after paying attention political events in France and notably the rise of the left-wing Popular Front during the 1930's.
Born with a sixth finger on his left hand he gained international fame after taking the picture of a Republican fighter suddenly falling backward after being hit by a bullet.
The «Picture Post» called him in 1938 the greatest war photo correspondent and the 140 photos exhibited in the museum have had already a great impact on visitors who have discovered many episodes of Spain's history which the Franco government carefully tried to keep secret during many decades.
Capa was above all covering the actions of the Republicans for whom he showed much sympathy and such exhibition has served to seal the ties between Capa and democratic Spain. In addition his brother Cornell has offered the museum some 250 photos on the civil war including many portraits of smiling Republican soldiers taken during the hot summer of 1936 in Barcelona.
Capa was a legend in himself loving women – he had an affair with Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman- going to horse races, playing cards, gambling money and drinking all night long with other adventurers such as Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, John Steinbeck or Humphrey Bogart.
Capa once was quoted as saying that fame would eventually kill him and this extraordinary man who co-founded the Magnum press agency probably sensed his fate from the start since he was killed at 41 on a reporting mission in Indochina in 1954.
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