ESPEJO (CÓRDOBA) : IDENTIFIED A NEW PICTURE MADE BY ROBERT CAPA IN EARLY SEPTEMBER 1936 WHOSE AUTHORSHIP AND LOCATION WAS UNKNOWN TILL NOW AND IN WHICH APPEARS THE FAMOUS MILITIAMAN SOME MINUTES BEFORE BEING SHOT

José Manuel Serrano Esparza
SPANISH
After some years of research elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com has been able to discover a new picture made by Robert Capa in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September 1936 and whose authorship and location were unknown till now.

It´s an image appearing on page 60 of the book The Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty, compiled by A. Ramos Oliveira and edited in 1937 by the Press Department of the Spanish Embassy in London, and neither its author nor the location where it was taken is indicated.

In this photograph three Republican militiamen can be seen holding 7 x 57 mm Mauser rifles running upwards on a ground covered with recently cut wheat, while an old anarchist chief placed on far right of the image (wearing white clothes, a military peaked cap probably captured during the assault against a Francoist barracks and a 7 x 57 mm caliber Mauser rifle in his right hand) is giving them orders.

The militiaman on far left of the image (and whose body is cut by the vertical left side of the frame in the beginning of his left shoulder and outer side of his left thigh) is the famous militiaman appearing in the mythical authentic picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman who was believed to be Federico Borrell García for many years, because of an identification error committed by the widow of Evaristo Borrell García (Federico´s younger brother), Empar Borrell (Federico´s grandniece) and Mario Brotons Jordá, until Miguel Pascual Mira proved in 2003 that the militiaman appearing in Capa´s photograph is not Federico Borrell García, when he discovered in the Number 13 of the Alcoy (Alicante) anarchist magazine Ruta Confederal of October 23, 1937 a chronicle written by the anarchist militiaman Enrique Borrell Fenollar and titled De Mi Diario El Compañero Federico Borrell “Taino” written in Puerto Escandón (Teruel) and sent by mail, in which he reports how he saw Federico Borrell García die on September 5, 1936 at four o´clock in the afternoon when he was sheltering behind a tree in Las Malagueñas ( a 589 m high hill near Cerro Muriano), an area featuring an utterly different landscape to the one appearing in the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman. That finding made by Miguel Pascual Mira definitely excluded in 2003 that the famous Republican militiaman could be Federico Borrell García.

In this photograph just identified and appearing on page 60 of the book The Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty, appears The Falling Soldier some minutes before being killed by a bullet piercing his heart and shot by a Moroccan soldier from Tabor of Regulares armed with a 7 x 57 mm high velocity caliber long barreled Mauser rifle Model 1891 or by fire of Hotchkiss M1914 machine-gun sporting identical caliber and full compatibility of ammunition, the latter being a possibility that can´t be excluded after the highly significant finding by Brian Wallis (Chief Curator of ICP New York) of a 1947 recording with Capa´s explanation of how events happened.

You can see his white shirt, clear trousers, the slipper of his right foot, his Spanish Elizabethan cap ( whose tassle is out of image), the butt and lower area of his Mauser 7 x 57 mm caliber rifle (appearing in shadow) and the leather back cartridge pouch (he´s wearing two more in the abdominal area).

This picture was made by Capa with his Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera coupled to a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens some seconds after a previous photograph made by Gerda Taro with her Rolleiflex Old Standard Model 622 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ medium format camera matched to a Carl Zeiss Jena 7,5 cm f/3.5 (which appears on page 79, Fig. 73 of the book This is War! Robert Capa at Work, edited by ICP/STEIDL) 

                                       © Gerda Taro / ICP New York

Selective enlargement of the lower area of the previous picture made by Gerda Taro in Espejo with her 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 medium format Rolleiflex Old Standard Model 622 and Carl Zeiss Jena 7,5 cm f/3,5 lens, in which can be seen five militiamen (of whom the second one from the left is the famous Falling Soldier) and on far right a man being aprroximately 45 years old who is giving them orders and at the same time simulating to be encouraging them for combat while attacking a presumed enemy position on top of the slope.

Even more selective enlargement of the lower area of the previous picture made by Gerda Taro in Espejo, in which can be seen on the left the famous militiaman some minutes before being killed by a 7 x 57 mm bullet piercing his heart and other two militiamen also running up the slope and being the same ones depicted in the new picture just identified (and belonging to the same series as the other approximately 40 photographs already known), whose authorship and location was unknown till now and which was made by Capa in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September 1936.

Selective enlargement of the just identified picture made by Capa in Espejo (Córdoba) in which can be seen the famous militiaman on far left of the image and other two militiamen on his right. They are exactly the same three persons appearing in the even more selective enlargement of the lower area of the previous picture made by Gerda Taro in Espejo some seconds before with her 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 Model 622 medium format Rolleiflex Old Standard camera.

including five militiamen running upwards (one of them being The Falling Soldier and the two just on his right being the same ones as the two on his right in the new picture made by Capa just discovered, and two more can be seen – the nearest ones to Taro´s camera- wearing darker overalls, while on far right can be seen the same old man in his mid forties clad in white garment and wearing a military peaked cap on his head, grabbing a 7 x 57 mm caliber Mauser rifle in his hand, giving orders to the militiamen).

This new photograph made by Capa in Espejo and whose authorship and location were unknown hitherto, adds to the approximately 40 already known made by Capa and Taro in Espejo during the first week of September 1936, and verifies once more what we have been stating since June 16, 2009 when we visited the Cortijo de Casalillas, Los Molinos del Campo, the Senda of Hornijeros and the area encompassing the old Casalillas way and the cemetery, three months and a half after being known that the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman had been made in Espejo front, thanks to the identification in early March 2009 by Antonio Aguilera (Andalusian teenager pupil of the High School Institute Vicente Núñez in Aguilar de la Frontera, Córdoba, who was the key person discovering that the photograph hadn´t been made either in the Cerro de la Coja or in Cerro Muriano area) of the ranges of Montilla and Cabra as the mountains which can be seen in the background of the decisive picture unveiled by the ICP in 2008 showing four militiamen and an old anarchist chief with their knees on the ground and simulating to aim their Mauser rifles: 

Decisive picture unveiled by ICP New York in late 2007 in the This is War! Robert Capa at Work exhibition catalogue book edited by ICP/STEIDL, belonging to the same series as the photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman and whose observation enabled the Cordovan boy Antonio Aguilera to be the first to identify in early March 2009 the mountains appearing in the background of the image as the ranges of Montilla and Cabra when it was shown to him the picture (who had been sent through email by J.M.Susperregui, as is explained on page 100 of the book Sombras de la Fotografía) by his teacher Juan Molleja Martínez of the IES Vicente Núñez of Aguilar de la Frontera (Córdoba). © Robert Capa / ICP New York

Line of mountains in the background appearing in the decisive picture in which appear four militiamen and a veteran anarchist chief with their knees on the ground and simulating aiming their rifles unveiled by the ICP New York in late 2007 in the catalogue book of the exhibition This is War! Robert Capa at Work edited by ICP/STEIDL, and which was identified for the first time by Antonio Aguilera in early March 2009 as the ranges of Montilla and Cabra, a discovery that made possible to know that the picture hadn´t been made in Cerro Muriano or the Cerro de la Coja, but in Espejo front. June 16, 2009. 
© José Manuel Serrano Esparza 

Picture made from the big Molino de Aceite o del Campo (a large old mill for olive oil production which still exists) on June 16, 2009, three months and a half after being known thanks to Antonio Aguilera that the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman hadn´t been made in Cerro Muriano or the Cerro de la Coja, but in Espejo front. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza

The discovery made by Antonio Aguilera, who was in early March 2009 the first person to identify the Llano de Banda and the ranges of Montilla and Cabra of the landscape appearing in the background of the decisive picture unveiled by the ICP in late 2007 on page 77 of the This is War! Robert Capa at Work exhibition catalogue book (in which appear four militiamen and an old anarchist chief with their knees on the ground aiming their Mauser rifles, with a part of that landscape also appearing in the background of the famous photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman and in the background of the pictures of pages 84 and 85 of the aformentioned book edited by ICP/STEIDL) was the key factor enabling to know that Capa´s most renowned picture hadn´t been made in Cerro Muriano or the Cerro de la Coja, but in Espejo front. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza. June 16, 2009           

the change of location of the picture The Falling Soldier from Cerro Muriano to Espejo doesn´t mean at all and automatically that the photograph is false, but increases very much the possibility of a long distance shot with high velocity 7 x 57 mm bullet, since it is a much larger area than the Cerro de la Coja, and the fact that Espejo Battle took place between September 22 and 25 of 1936 and that the nearest Francoist troops were in Montilla at a distance of 12 km during the first weeks of that month, doesn´t imply at all that there couldn´t be skirmishes, infiltrations of Moroccan soldiers from Tabor of  Regulares carrying out observation missions to spot the defensive Republican positions around the village before the massive attack some weeks later, or shots during the first week of the month, and that the picture is automatically false.

In my viewpoint, to state that reveals a deep ignorance as to the dynamics of the Spanish Civil War, particularly during the first months of war in 1936, in which there wasn´t a Republican Army strictly speaking ( it began to be brought to life in mid October 1936 with the organization of the first six mixed brigades intended for the setting up of a single command and a regularization of the Republican Army, and the complete rearrangement of the different Republican forces wasn´t fulfilled until early 1937).

In this context, during the first months of fight the fronts weren´t fixed at all and constant skirmishes happened, along with infiltration missions to spot the enemy defensive points around the villages – above all sorties made by the Francoist side – during the previous weeks to the battles, specially carried out by Moroccan soldiers from Tabor of Regulares.

In June 2009 (three months and a half after early March 2009, in which thanks to Antonio Aguilera was known that the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman hadn´t been made in Cerro Muriano but in Espejo area) we expressed our conviction that neither Capa nor Taro had given orders to the militiamen at any moment to make a staging simulating battle with runs, jumps, rifles aimed at the enemy, etc, because of two main reasons:

a) In that time the presence of photographers was something that gave rise to a huge expectation. There were many fewer of them than nowadays, and everybody wanted to be photographed and appear the best possible in the images, so it was usual that the militiamen posed willingly before the cameras or ran in various directions near the camera or cameras with their rifles in hand to fake combat.

As a matter of fact, from the approximately 40 pictures made by Capa and Taro outside Espejo village (Córdoba province), all of them were staged with the exception of two (in which appears the first militiaman - the most famous one- just at the moment in which he´s shot in his heart , and a second one - who is also shot and is seriously wounded, probably dying shortly after - ) corresponding to an unexpected situation that suddenly happens with real 7 x 57 mm shots made by Moroccan Francoist soldiers from tabor of regulares belonging to the the Army of Africa.

But until the unforeseen shots happened and the two real deaths took place, there wasn´t any staging ordered by Capa or Gerda Taro, because in some of the pictures, with militiamen aiming their rifles with their safes on, or with some of the anarchist civil combatants protruding over the trenches offering an easy target, or with some of them simulating to be dead with rifles sometimes being held with their lower area upwards or even leaned on stones in one of the photographs, it is exceedingly apparent that they don´t correspond to real combat, and Capa and Gerda Taro weren´t so naive to give orders to the militiamen to simulate real combat in such an evident way to cheat any future observers of their pictures.

What happened in Espejo was a kind of spontaneous collective revolutionary spree generated by the presence of Capa and Taro and greatly enhanced by the old man in his mid forties wearing white attire and peaked military cap who appears in six of the pictures of the series (and highly probably is near both of them and likewise giving instructions in vast majority of the rest of photographs) made by Capa and Taro in Espejo and who constantly gave orders to the militiamen for them to fake combat in different ways: running upwards against a supposed Francoist position really non existent, jumps over supposed enemy trenches which were really of their own, being with their knees on the ground (and excessively unprotected)  aiming their Mauser rifles at a supposed foe, shots from inside a trench (with some of the militiamen sticking out their bodies too much over them and offering an easy target), simulatings of being shot by a bullet (as happens in the number 869 frame of page 67 of the catalogue book This is War! Robert Capa at Work, edited by ICP/STEIDL, in which is very visible the Mauser rifle perpendicularly leaned on the border of the trench, something impossible after falling from the hands of the dark haired man who has just supposedly been shot and subject to be easily seen by any future observer), many rifles with their safes on, soldiers running too close together  towards a presumed enemy, holding their rifles at mid height and standing exceedingly upright instead of advancing more bent down to offer the least possible target (number 879 frame of the aforementioned catalogue book).

Definitely, Capa and Taro didn´t give any orders or instructions to the militiamen to perform stagings, and it was this man in his mid forties clad in white colour (who liked to distinguish himself from the rest of militiamen with his white garment instead of the usual green or blue overalls and with his military peaked cap as a trophy) who was both giving them instructions and simulating to exhort them in the middle of the ´action´, greatly due to the fact that he did wish to show off and flaunt command before Gerda Taro, a very attractive woman, whose facial features were similar to Greta Garbo actress and who was with Capa in Espejo (Córdoba province).

b) Though they were wearing press accreditations, Capa and Taro hadn´t enough command in Espejo at all to do things as they wanted (surrounded by highly independent anarchist militiamen from CNT and FAI who didn´t obey the orders of the regular military Republican officers, but only the ones coming from their chiefs) and they were bound to photograph what happened, in a context ruled by the eagerness to prominence of this old anarchist chief (who clearly was the one having more command in that area of the big slope by Espejo village defended by civil combatants from CNT and FAI), whose instructions were fulfilled to the letter and wholeheartedly by the militiamen who were crazy about being photographed and whom the presence of Gerda Taro also motivated a great deal, because they had been outside their homes since August 9, 1936 when the Alcoy Column had departured from Alcoy (Alicante) heading for Córdoba province.

And this way, the sort of revolutionary bing of the CNT and FAI militiamen from Alcoy continued on the slope in the outskirts of Espejo in a number of different manners, following the orders and instructions given by this veteran anarchist chief, until suddenly something unexpected happened and there were some Francoist shots which killed the militiaman wearing a white shirt and Spanish Elizabethan cap with tassle (the famous Falling Soldier, who we have known since 2003 thanks to the finding of Miguel Pascual Mira that isn´t Federico Borrell García), precisely the one who had been showing off the most until that moment, and left seriously wounded a second different militiaman who tried to help him and who was already on the ground when was shot.

It must be also explained that the famous picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman made by Capa in Espejo (in the same way as the other approximately 40 made by him and Gerda Taro in this village of Córdoba province) was not taken on September 4, 1936, because such as was proved by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com some months ago Capa and Gerda Taro didn´t arrive at Cero Muriano on September 5, 1936 but one, two or three days before:

a) Discovered the Location of a Photograph Made by Robert Capa and Published in Regards magazine of September 24, 1936 

b) Cerro Muriano 75th Anniversary ( I ) : Capa and Taro Arrived Two or Three Days Before September 5, 1936

Therefore, on September 4 and 5, 1936 Capa and Taro were in Cerro Muriano, so the evidence clearly indicate that the famous picture was made in Espejo on September 3, 1936 or even on September 2, 1936.

On another level, those who state that Robert Capa was professionally born in Espejo (Córdoba) the day he made the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman during the first week of September 1936 incur in apparent phallacy, because at that moment in which he made that extraordinary picture, Capa had already worked as a professional photographer for 4 years and had made among others: 

- His famous reportage of León Trotski in Copenhaguen on November 27, 1932 (a work which was assigned to him by Daniel Guttmann, director of Dephot Agency in Berlin, then the most prestigious one in the world), published in Der-Spiegel on December 11, 1932, with the credit Aufnahmen Friedmann-Degephot.

- A reportage of the city of Budapest for Veres Travel Agency (at the moment one of the most important in Europe) which hired him in the summer of 1933, with the credit Friedmann.

- Two excellent reportages published in Vu magazine (numbers of November 7 and 21, 1934) on the Sarre area, with the credit Friedmann.

- Reportage in San Sebastian in 1935 published in the number of July 20 of that year of Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung (then the world benchmark regarding graphic publications) on the boxer Paulino Uzcudun before facing the Italian Primo Carnera for the Heavyweight Champion of the World, with the credit Fot. André. 

- Reportage in Madrid in 1935 published in Vu number 377 and in Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung of June 20 of that year on colonel Emilio Herrera trying to break the height world record with aerostatic balloon (he appears handling his special costume with helmet optimized for the low pressure and lack of oxygene at very high altitudes), with the credit Fot. André.

- Reportage in Seville in April 1935, where he documented the Holy Week and which was published a year later by Voila magazine number 263 of April 4, 1936, with the credit Capa. This reportage also appeared in the British Weekly Illustrated magazine.

- Reportage in late June 1936 during the sessions of the League of Nations in Geneve, which he covered photographically and was published in Vu magazine of July 8, 1936, with the credit Robert Capa for the first time.

- Reportage in Vu magazine number 435 of July 15, 1936 with images of the Popular Front demonstration in Paris and cover of a boy with a beret and the French flag, with the credit Photo Capa.

- Reportage made in Barcelona in mid August of 1936 and published in the special number of Vu magazine of August 29, 1936 with images of the militiamen leaving Barcelona by trains going to the Aragón front, and the credit Capa.

Besides, Endre Ernö Friedmann (true name of Robert Capa)  was represented by Anglo-Continental (run by Maria Eisner in Paris) and Black Star (in New York) photographic agencies from 1934 to May 1936 as Andre Friedmann and from early May 1936 as Robert Capa.

On the other hand, though the reproduction of the just identified picture made by Capa in Espejo in the book Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty from 1937 isn´t very good and there has been loss of quality with respect to the original 35 mm black and white negative exposed by Capa in Espejo (which undoubtedly featured a far superior level of detail), on being used with this photograph a photogravure reproduction system with pictorialist profile, featuring very beautiful image aesthetics but providing less definition and realism than the half tone system (which was the one catapulting the spread of the outstanding black and white illustrated publications during thirties and forties), and in spite of the abundant quantity of visible grain inherent to the bulk loaded 24 x 36 mm format 

Eastman Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate b & w film featuring a sensitivity of  Weston 32, equivalent to approximately ISO 40, used by Capa in Espejo, the very good acutance of this monochromatic chemical emulsion including tons of silver in synergy with the remarkable resolving power of the 

Leitz Nickel Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens serial number 133594 manufactured in 1932 with which Capa made in Espejo (Córdoba) the just identified picture during the first week of September 1936.

Leica II (Model D) serial number 90023 coupled to the Leitz Nickel Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 serial number 133594 that was held between his hands by Robert Capa when he made in Espejo (Córdoba) the just identified picture.

Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/3.5 lens coupled to the Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera enabled to preserve (throughout  the six phases of photogravure plating going from the continuous tone film positive made from the original 35 mm negative up to the copper plate in the fourth stage until reaching the fifth step of bath with hot water to remove the paper backing and to wash away the softer and unexposed gelatin, and the sixth one etching the image on the copper plate by means of ferric chloride) in the copper plate an acceptable visual perception of sharpness and discerning of the contours which could be transferred with minimal further loss when printing the image on the paper of the book, and which remains greatly kept even on doing selective enlargements, which has made possible to compare the persons appearing in the just identified photograph made by Capa in Espejo with other ones captured by he and Gerda Taro that day and also belonging to the series of Espejo.

Not in vain, even two years later, in 1938, when there were some black and white 35 mm photographic films providing more resolving power and contrast, the great Dutch cinema director Joris Ivens and Capa decided to use this same cinematographic monochrome Eastman Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate film made in Rochester (the genius from Holland had been using this emulsion since its 1931 masterpiece documentary film Philips Radio, getting amazing results) to reduce costs without lowering quality, because its acutance glaringly made up for the visible grain it featured and it could be used by both Capa´s Contax II and Ivens´  35 mm movie cameras Bell & Howell Eyemo and manually cranked Philips.

Homage to Robert Capa and Gerda Taro made in Espejo by the Cordovan Photojournalists on September 5, 2011, 75th Anniversary of the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman

© José Manuel Serrano Esparza.

Inscribed in the Territorial Registry of the Intellectual Property of Madrid