THIS IS WAR
PHOTOGRAPHS 1936-1945
Robert Capa

Hardbound, 8" x 10", 300 pages
86 color illustrations
2007, Steidl/ICP
Text by Richard Whelan

At the heart of the great Magnum photographer Robert Capa's life's work are his photojournalistic images of war. This collection examines in detail six of the most important moments he covered as a young man: the falling soldier (a single image from the Spanish Civil War made in 1936), Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion (1938), the end of the Spanish Civil War in Catalonia (November 1938-January 1939), D-Day (1944), the U.S. paratroop invasion of Germany (March, 1945), and the liberation of Leipzig (April, 1945). In connection with the last of those stories, This Is War considers why Capa (1913-1954) did not photograph the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. One chapter is devoted to each piece of reportage, with extensive historical and biographical text from Richard Whelan, Capa's biographer, and a major essay from Whelan about Capa and the rise of the picture press in Europe and America. Each section is copiously illustrated with largely unseen original materials including vintage prints, contact sheets, caption sheets, letters and magazine layouts, and full of revelations not just about Capa, but about the changing ways his images were reaching ever larger audiences.