An inspirational person

"If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough." ~Robert Capa

Robert Capa

Recently, I have been starting on an assignment to research a photographer and among all those my teacher presented to me, I find one certain photographer that surprised and amused me a lot that I feel oblige to share what I know about this man. Robert Capa. (Technically, I did Henri Cartier-Bresson for my assignment, but I scanned through his photos and found a nude photo(just one), so now I blog my second favourite, which are both amazing photographers.) Maybe not all of you love photography, maybe not all of you are interested in colourless pictures, but he(or they, including Cartier-Bresson) is worth checking out.

I won't go deep into his history, as boring as it seems, I think what he has achieved throughout his years of living is what that inspires me to write this post.

Robert Capa is a Hungarian photojournalist who had went across the Europe and covered photographs for five wars, including World War II. Yes, you heard me, five. To me, that may have been the silliest yet bravest idea to risk your life living under where numerous injuries and deaths occur, in order to take photographs that people may not even appreciate. But Capa did it. Oh, he did it briliantly. His works of 'The Magnificent Eleven' is extraordinary attention-grabbing.The Magnificent Eleven is a series of photographs that Robert Capa took during the Normandy Landings (D-Day) with the second wave of troops to land on the American invasion beach. Out of 106 pictures, only eleven survived. (Not because water went into the machines and the photos got soaked, it was an... accident when processing.)

Robert Capa survived and later led a good life, befriended John Steinback (I was surprised, my head went thinking, 'Such a small world!'), he even co-founded one of the most famous photo agency, Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson and several men. He died at the age of fourty, when he blew up by standing on a landmine in the First Indochina War. Capa died with a camera in his hand.

© Copyrighted by Robert Capa

The one on the right is one of the 'magnificents' I enjoyed most. It is burlier than the rest, but ironically, most significant. Capa did not have the time to adjust his camera, and the picture blurred, but that mistake however makes the event on the photo - the tragic event more convincing. Everything was literally and mentally in so much rush, the tense face on the soldier, the sunken ship is entirely heartbreakening. That is just one of my favourites, my others include: Picture 10, 12 & 16 from the 

You can also check out his other photographs here!