Eyes Of The World

Eyes Of The World

Adult/YA nonfiction/herstory
"This is what Capa, Taro, and Chim are too: refugees, exiles,
living on their wits, with no real home. Capa does not even have a
passport or official papers anymore--he is not Hungarian, not German,
not French--just a man with a camera in his hand in the midst of a
war. That rootless condition is rapidly becoming the condition of
thousands in Spain. It's as if these photographs are a warning:
millions will be driven from their homes across the whole continent of
Europe if the world does not do something now."
Probably the pictures pioneering photojournalist Robert Capa is
best remembered for are the ten that survived from the D-Day invasion
of World War II. He had jumped from a transport boat into the ocean,
being sprayed with morter and machine gun fire alongside the soldiers
making a desperate assault on Hitler's forces. Wading through red-
stained waves and around dead bodies, in mortal peril himself, he had
taken pictures that carried the war into millions of homes thousands
of miles away.
Capa was a solo act by then. However, and this is a BIG
however, during previous important years he was half of a twosome. He
and Gerda Taro, a woman he loved dearly enough to propose to,
pioneered the essence of the photojournalism we know today. Marc
Aaronson and Marina Budhos' Eyes Of The World: Robert Capa, Gerda
Taro, And The Invention Of Modern Photojournalism gives readers their
long overdue story.
Capa (then Andre Friedmann) and Taro (then Gerta Pohorylle) met
in Paris in a Europe reeling from the war to end all wars (WWI) and
the Great Depression. Both were emigres fleeing Nazi danger. In a
place where they were unknown it was possible to adopt new names that
would protect them from Anti-Semitism and help them establish
themselves as professional photographers.
Much of their work was done in Spain during the Spanish Civil
War. Working sometimes collectively and sometimes solo they pioneered
two dimensions we have come to take for granted in photojournalism.
One was the dangerous up close shots that bring an event like a war
right to readers. (Both were killed while covering war in this way).
The other was photographing average people whose lives are devastated
by events. Their refugee and orphan photographs tug at the heart
eighty years later.
Eyes Of The World is a great read on so many levels! It gives
the story of the evolution of modern photojournalism. It conveys the
very complex and down to earth love story of two people creating their
own path in a changing, challenging world. It gives insights into the
Spanish Civil War (which much of America seems oblivious to), how it
led up to World War II, and its relevance to the situation in Syria
today...
...and the photographs are nothing less than amazing.
On a personal note, I made my mall trip Wednesday. I got Eugene's
birthday gift. For myself I bought two school practical items: a 2018
datebook and a darling watch. I indulged in a yummy hot pretzel.
Yesterday I volunteered at Orono library and picked up 24 books.
A great big shout out goes out to the brave journalists who put all on
the line to bring us inconvenient and unpopular truths that are often
threatening to those in power.
jules hathaway





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