Sentimental in Berlin Blog: Robert Capa Exhibition in Daniel Blau Gallery, Shoreditch, London

Robert Capa with a cigarette in his mouth. Quote: It's not enough to have talent, you also have to be Hungarian

Robert Capa from here.

The above quote is not a quote from someone shy...it might even seem patronising and not only confident, but aggressive. However Robert Capa, who is among the most famous war photographers of the 20th century, was just saying what he really thought as a Hungarian.

He was born in Budapest into a Hungarian Jewish family as Friedmann Endre. There are 2 theories regarding his alias name: Robert Capa, what he had become famous with. One theory is something that I have known for ages; since he was a tall man, his nickname was Cápa, meaning Shark, which he thought might sound better in the western world and would be more recognisable. From the Daniel Blau Gallery's source I now learnt a new fact, that actually he wanted his name resembling of movie director Frank Capra.

As I mentioned before he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest war photographer from that era. He was out there capturing the horror of 5 wars, travelling through the world and producing these photographs about desperation, love in war, death and reality of war.

Besides the terrifying images he had taken shots of some of his friends. These friends were amongst the biggest names of the 20th century's art scene; like Picasso, Steinbeck and Matisse to name a few.

These 2 pictures are among the most famous ones from his images.
The Falling soldier/Death of the Militiaman (Spanish Civil War)

Robert Capa - The Falling Soldier from here.

Picasso and his muse Francoise Gilot

Picasso hold a parasol over his muse Francoise Gilot on the sandy beach

Robert Capa - Picasso and his muse Françoise Gilot from here.

I knew some of Capa's photos since I was in a very young age. Probably because they were featured in many TV documentaries in the country where I was born, since he was Hungarian.

Then soon after I came to London I bought a book about photography. Photo Icons: The story behind the photo (Taschen). This book also features Capa.

Photo Icons - Taschen Book cover with 4 naked ladies

And last year when I took part in a Coursera course; The Camera Never Lies which was about photography. There was one session covering Capa and his work as well.

I was exposed to Capa's images since an early age from different aspects, however never seen any of them in real other than from a book or TV. So the aforementioned triggers all forced me to conclude this was the chance for me to see some of his photographs!

When I read about the exhibition in Time Out...I knew already I had to visit Daniel Blau Gallery at Hoxton square.

On Saturday I travelled from the other end of town to Hoxton square, where I easily found Daniel Blau Gallery to see the Capa exhibition!

Both gallery consultants were very kind and easy to talk to and very knowledgeable! Thus I not only learnt about the alias name, but for example, each photos have 2 dates underneath; Common sense, one of them is the date when the photo was actually taken and the 2nd date refers to when it was printed.
Each photo also has a timestamp on their back to help dating them accordingly and other interesting fact were also revealed.

Altogether around 40-50 photographs were nicely framed and hung on the walls, plus there were some material about Capa's life and reading suggestions on the table.