By José Manuel Serrano Esparza
After a research spanning 32 years since he firstly began in 1994 to study the iconic picture The Falling Soldier, made by Robert Capa, José Manuel Serrano Esparza has been able to confirm that this well-known photograph was made without any doubt by the Hungarian photographer.
In this regard, Serrano Esparza provides a number of evidences clearly indicating that the Falling Soldier picture was made by Robert Capa with a 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera and an uncoated Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens, also proving that even if the very remote possibility that it had been made with a 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle camera could ever be verified, things wouldn´t change at all regarding the authorship by Robert Capa.
Besides, unquestionable further evidences definitely prove that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro didn´t stage absolutely anything in Espejo (Córdoba) the day of the first week of September 1936 in which The Falling Soldier picture was made.
The fact that Gerda Taro appears with a Reflex Korelle camera ( discovery made by José Manuel Serrano Esparza on September 24, 2014) in two photographs made in Villa del Río (Córdoba) isn´t at all strong proof that it was she who took the Falling Soldier picture.
Because that picture, both if it was made with a 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle or a 24 x 36 mm Leica II (Model D), wasn´t made by Gerda Taro.
And was undoubtedly made by Robert Capa,
with a 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) coupled to an uncoated Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens
loaded with Eastman Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate black and white film featuring a sensitivity of Weston 32, roughly equivalent to ISO 40, as indicates the image aesthetics of the picture,
and the fact that it shows abundant grain.
On the other hand, there are a lot of further evidences of the authorship of this famous picture by Robert Capa :
- A medium format camera would have given far superior image quality, much less grain, much wider tonal range, much more detail and less depth of field.
- Capa made the picture using a slow shutter speed, probably 1/100 s or 1/60 s to convey great sense of motion.
The Falling Soldier was not running when he was photographed. He was standing in front of Robert Capa, who got the picture while suddenly the militiaman began falling backwards.
- Gerda Taro´s style getting pictures in 1936 was very different to Capa´s one.
She made very good photographs with her Reflex Korelle between August of 1936 and February of 1937,
Republican militiawoman training on the beach outside Barcelona. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
Five militiawomen training on the beach outside Barcelona. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
Boy wearing a cap of the FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation). Barcelona. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
but they were a much more geometric kind of pictures, with not so tight framings as in the photographs made by Capa, who always approached to his subjects as much as he could, and above all,
Militiamen running downwards a mount slope in Santa Eulalia, near Huesca. Aragón Front. August of 1936. The use of a slow shutter speed of 1/100 s or 1/60 s has generated a great picture in which every civil combatant appears with the adequate degree of trepidation, conveying an impressive feeling of movement. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
created much more dynamic pictures where he often conveyed a vivid feeling of motion using slow shutter speeds.
Two Republican soldiers of the International Brigades inside the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid University (one of them injured in his head) crouch quickly on a bed to protect themselves against a machine gun from Francoist troops which has just opened fire. Capa photographs them with a slow shutter speed, masterfully capturing their movement and depicting both men blurred by trepidation and getting a great sensation of motion. December of 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
- Broadly speaking, Robert Capa´s images were much convulse than the photographs taken by Gerda Taro,
Republican militiamen inside a Popular Front car speaking with two militiawomen standing beside it. Barcelona. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
which were more artistic, focused on composition, efficient use of diagonals, geometric patterns, etc.
Robert Capa was a genius of photography in the short distances, with a completely instinctive style of getting pictures, talent to spare to be at the right place at the adequate moment and an amazing ability to capture meaningful instants, with very fast and intuitive compositions and always moving at full speed to create images from different angles, with oustanding resistance to fatigue, leveraging his remarkable athleticism and stamina that he had proved in Budapest playing football when he was a teenager during twenties.
But Gerda Taro´s knowledge about photographic art was far superior to Capa, because the German photojournalist was heavily influenced by Russian Constructivism, the Avant-Garde and the New Vision movement from 1920s and 1930s.
Therefore, Gerda Taro´s photographs made with her Reflex Korelle in Barcelona, Aragon Front, Madrid, Córdoba province, etc, between August of 1936 and February of 1938 are more thoughtful, more meditative, more artistic, boasting more meticulous compositions and with a different image aesthetics, frequently using dynamic angles and low viewpoints.
The influence of Alexandr Rodchenko is particularly visible in Gerda Taro´s photographs,
Republican militiamen in Aragón Front. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
Three Republican militiawomen, probably in Barcelona. August 1936. Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York.
often showing steep and low angle perspective shots to make human subjects heroic and monumental.
She was much more organized and disciplined than Robert Capa, who had a rather chaotic personality and made pictures mainly focused on gritty realism, and frequently on the feeling of movement he generated thanks to his stunning flair for
Woman and her dog running under a Francoist aviation bombardment. Barcelona. January of 1939. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
using slow shutter speeds to get his subjects blurred by trepidation in different degrees (something in which he was a consummate master) and capturing human emotion.
Of course, Gerda Taro´s photographs also captured human emotions, but included a lot of artistic, geometric composition and distinct lines concepts that don´t appear in Capa´s pictures.
In 1936, Robert Capa had an experience of four years as a professional photojournalist, while Gerda Taro was beginning her career and was much more an artistic photographer, whose images also oozed Bauhaus sensibilities, and in her pictures, people are not only depicted as victims of war, but also as idealized, heroic figures of social revolution.
Selective framing of a photograph showing Gerda Taro on July 5, 1937 during the II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, held in Valencia (Spain). A chrome Leica III (Model F) coupled to a Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/2 can be seen in her hands while she makes a photograph. Photo : Walter Reuters.
It was from February 1937, when she became a full-fledged photojournalist, on changing from medium format Reflex Korelle to 24 x 36 mm format screwmount Leica III, as proved by her extraordinary reportages in Valsequillo, La Granjuela, Brunete, etc.
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
- The Falling Soldier picture is absolutely extraordinary, timeless and unique, but technically very imperfect : it shows massive quantity of visible grain, its lower border cuts more than half of the militiaman´s left foot and approximately one fourth of the right one, the face of the militiaman appears very blurred by trepidation, so it´s implossible to distinguish his facial traits, the left border of the image cuts a bit of the 7 x 57 mm Mauser rifle butt, etc.
Upper view of the 6 x 6 cm Reflex Korelle camera with Schneider-Kreuznach 75 mm f/2.8 lens. You can see the large size of camera body, with dimensions of 145 x 92 x 97 mm and a weight of 806 g, in comparison to Robert Capa´s Leica II (Model D), whose dimensions were 133 x 67 x 33 mm and a weight of 406 g. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
- It doesn´t make any sense to have used a 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle camera to make such a technically and compositionally imperfect photograph in which besides, the features of the militiaman´s countenance can´t be distinguished.
The 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) with which Capa made this well-known picture is much more optimized to shoot handheld than a 6 x 6 cm Reflex Korelle when it comes to getting this kind of photographs hand and wrist with a person in fast and sudden movement forward, falling towards the ground, using a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/100 s or 1/60 s,
Front view of the 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle camera, in whose inner area, on its middle part, appears the very big and heavy swivelling mirror inherent to a slr camera using a film four times larger than 24 x 36 mm format. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
because the Reflex Korelle has a very large swivelling mirror, which brings about much more vibration on shooting under shutter speeds of 1/200 s, so the risk of excessive blurring because of trepidation and obtain a useless photograph is much higher.
Open back area of the 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle camera. It can be seen in the middle area the large square window demarcating each exposed frame, which is a 400% bigger than a 24 x 36 mm negative, so the shutter curtains have to travel a much bigger space during the photographic act. This significantly hindered shooting handheld and make sharp pictures at shutter speeds under 1/200 s with the very low sensitivity black and white films available in mid thirties. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
On the other hand, the space that both horizontally travelling curtains of the Reflex Korelle (6 x 6 cm medium format) focal-plane mechanical shutter have to run is far larger than the also mchanica focal-plane shutter with horizontally travelling curtains of the Leica II (Model D), which makes the reflex Korelle even less adequate to create images with the right degree of blurring because of trepidation to convey feeling of motion, since the risk of getting excessively blurred images with it is much higher.
- The lack of a swivelling mirror of the Leica II (Model D) rangefinder turns it into a much adequate and efficient camera shooting handheld with relatively slow shutter speeds of 1/100 s and 1/60 s with people moving to get pictures with an optimum degree of blurring because of trepidation and transmission of motion sensation, while the slap of the rather big mirror of the Reflex Korelle makes it virtually pointless to make this kind of photographs shooting handheld.
- A 6 x 6 cm negative (four times larger than the 24 x 36 mm format) wouldn´t have generated so much grain in the image.
- The cutting of the feet of main subjects in his images
Chinese old woman walking hastily trying to save a lot of tea bricks that she is taking in her hands because Japanese artillery is bombing the area. At the same time, a Chinese woman holding in her arms her little baby (who is rubbing his eyes because of sleepiness), his husband and a third person on far left of the image are beginning to flee the zone. Capa has made the picture with a 24 x 36 mm format Contax II rangefinder camera coupled to a Carl Zeiss jena Sonnar 50 mm f/2 lens, setting the distance scale at 4 meters and choosing f/8, so he gets a sharpness area between 2,80 m and 7 m. Both feet of the woman appear cut because of the slight parallax error of the camera, since Capa has made a very quick shot and it is very difficult to obtain a 100% accurate framing. In addition, the whole body of the woman on the right and the tea bricks appear blurred by trepidation, because of the slow shutter speed of probably 1/100 s, while she is moving walking fast. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
is often a highly distinctive feature in Robert Capa´s photographs,
Civilian population in a street of Cefalú (Sicily), two days after the liberation of the village by American troops. July 26, 1943. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
because he always strove after getting pictures from the nearest possible distance, and a screwmount Leica rangefinder camera has parallax error ( what you see in the viewfinder doesn´t exactly coincide with what the lens imprints on the negative), particularly evident in the closest distances between one and two meters, and in far less degree between two and five meters, so it was difficult to make 100% accurate framings.
If The Falling Soldier photograph had been taken with a Reflex Korelle (which lacks parallax error, since it is a single lens reflex camera, using its lens tto frame the image through a mirror and a focusing screen and to make the photograph), it wouldn´t have cut the militiaman´s feet, because it is a camera that registers in the negative exactly what you see in the viewfinder.
- In addition, the whole Falling Soldier picture oozes drama and convulsion. This image bears undoubtedly Robert Capa´s hallmark.
- This photograph wasn´t made by Gerda Taro turning the focusing ring of the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 7,5 cm f/2.8 of her Reflex Korelle camera until finding accurate focus.
The Falling Soldier picture was made by Robert Capa with a Leica II (Model D) screwmount rangefinder camera and a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens, using zone focusing, id est,
Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 with its scale of distances (the nearest one to the lower border of the image) and the scale of distances (just beyond it). © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
setting the distance scale of the lens barrel in 4 meters and choosing f/8 (it was his most used combination) to obtain depth of field between approximately 2,80 m and 7 m of sharpness zone.
This is the way in which 24 x 36 mm rangefinder Leica cameras have traditionally been used in photojournalism since mid twenties, to gain time and optimize the chance of capturing decisive moments, because doing things this way you only have to raise the camera and shoot, not needing to waste precious time turning the focusing ring of the lens until you find correct focus.
Robert Capa made the Falling Soldier picture from a distance of approximately 4,5 m.
All of the pictures of militiamen taken by Capa during the Falling Soldier series of images in Espejo (Córdoba) were made using zone focusing,
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York sometimes with the distance scale of the lens set at 4 m and f/8 or f/11 to get depth of field between 2,80 m and 7 m
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
and others with the distance scale at 2,5 m and f/11 to get sharpness between 1,8 and 3,9 m.
Because to get those images turning the focusing ring of the lens using the rangefinder of the camera to obtain accurate focus would have been very slow,
since in the Leica II Model D, the rangefinder is not integrated inside the viewfinder (the German photographic firm wouldn´t do it until 1954 with its Leica M4), so there are two small round eyepieces in the back top left area of the camera, one for framing the picture and another one to obtain accurate focus.
Militiamen of the CNT and FAI from Alcoy (Alicante) jumping over a trench during the making of the Falling Soldier series of pictures in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September 5, 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Militiamen of the CNT and FAI from Alcoy (Alicante) running on the ground with wheat holding Mauser rifles in their hands (one of them is wearing a militiary helmet probably captured during the assault to a Spanish Army barracks in July or August of 1936) in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September 5, 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Anarchist militiaman of the CNT from Alcoy (Alicante) running with a Mauser rifle in his hands while the Falling Soldier appears behind him falling backwards. Espejo (Córdoba). First week of September 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
This image, in addition to many others taken that day, proves very clearly that in all the pictures the orders were given by the mature officer with military cap having power over the militiamen, because this photograph was made by Robert Capa very near the point where he made the famous Falling Soldier picture, whose main character is the same civil combatant wearing a white shirt and appearing in this picture behind the militiaman closest to the camera.
This image has been taken at a slow shutter speed of probably 1/100 s or perhaps 1/60 s, shooting handheld, as is indicated by the blurred by trepidation right foot of the nearest militiaman to camera and his whole body also appearing blurred by trepidation, though in less degree.
ROBERT CAPA AND GERDA TARO DIDN´T STAGE ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING THE DAY IN WHICH THE PHOTOGRAPH DEATH OF A LOYALIST MILITIAMAN WAS MADE IN ESPEJO (CÓRDOBA) DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 1936
Though evidently the photographs made by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro in Espejo during the first week of September 1936 don´t depict any real combat whatsoever ( since combats in Espejo area began on September 22 of that year) and show evidently a staging, that staging of militiamen running, jumping, simulating to be aiming their rifles againts an inexisting enemy at the moment, etc, wasn´t ordered or directed by Robert Capa or Gerda Taro.
That´s to say, neither Capa nor Gerda Taro gave the orders to the militiamen to make Death of a Loyalist militian photograph and the rest ones which were made that day.
They were given by the mature officer with military cap, who once and again ordered the civil combatants to make different movements running, jumping, posing, etc, to be photographed, because he did wish to exhibit his power before Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, since at the time, the presence of any photographer was something very thrilling for militiamen and their commanders.
The only thing that Capa and Taro could do was to photograph what was happening, ordered by the mature officer.
In addition, in the aforementioned picture, the Falling Soldier in the background, behind the militiaman in the foreground, is falling backwards with the lower area of his Mauser rifle (appearing blurred because of trepidation, along with its leather strap, because it is in movement) upwards, in a completely antinatural way, simulating to fall on the ground, following the orders being imparted by the mature official, who is surely very near (out of the image).
This is clearly another picture of The Falling Soldier, made in a different moment, and in which unlike the most famous one ( in which only appears the most famous civil combatant alone, wearing a white shirt and falling backwards in front of Capa), appear two militiamen (the most famous one and another one nearer to the camera, wearing a blue overalls and with his Mauser rifle in his hands) with their right hip oriented towards the photograph, in a spot very near to the point where the most well-known picture The Falling Soldier was made, as is indicated by the very similar landscape in the background, in which are visible the same mountains in the right lower area of the image, along with part of the same thin and elongated stretch of land with clear tonality appearing in the most famous Death of a Loyalist Militiaman picture.
We don´t know if this photograph with two militiamen (and a third outside the frame, but whose Mauser rifle tip protrudes from the upper left border of the photograph) fue captada antes o después de la más famosa imagen Muerte de Un Miliciano, pero fue hecha desde un ángulo mucho más bajo.
If all the previously explained evidences were not enough to prove that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro didn´t give any order whatsoever to the militiamen that day and that everything was ordered and staged by the mature officer with military cap, there is a further photograph taken that day by Robert Capa in Espejo (Córdoba), confirming it even more and in a definitive way :
Picture of the series The Falling Soldier. Espejo. First week of September 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Can anybody on earth believe that Robert Capa or Gerda Taro staged this photograph in such a naive way, putting a Mauser rifle leaning its buttock on a big stone on the ground and the forward third of the gun on the militiaman´s neck simulating to be dead, to preserve the balance of the rifle in an utterly antinatural position with its lower area upwards ?
Please !
Robert Capa and Gerda Taro were two refugees from Nazism who had been through a lot of difficulties during their stay in Paris between 1933 and first half of 1936, and they had already remarkable visual culture watching photographic images.
Capa had been darkroom assistant at Dephot Agency in Berlin between 1931 and 1933 (developing 35 mm film rolls of great photographers like Harald Lechenperg, Walter Bosshard, Otto Umbert, Felix H. Mann, Kurt Hutton, etc) and had very good friendship with Simon Guttman, director of Dephot and at the time the best picture editor in the world.
On her turn, Gerda Taro had a great artistic culture and visual experience seeing pictures, because she had been assistant and picture editor of Maria Eisner (director of Alliance Photo Agency in Paris) from October 1935 from mid 1936, and had watched a raft of photographs made by Denise Bellon, Pierre Boucher, Feher, Perre Verger and René Zuber, the photojournalists of the agency.
Obviously, neither Capa nor Taro staged this picture in such an unconvincing way, being so evident for every observer of the photograph that it has been staged.
The rifle was put this way, leaning on a big stone in its butt area and with its forward third of the gun resting on the militiaman´s neck, by the mature officer with military cap.
This man had the command that day in all the photographs that were made by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro.
Capa and Taro couldn´t make other thing that photograph what the officer ordered and made once and again.
And there´s a further picture confirming this even more :
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
Can anybody on earth believe that Robert Capa would stage a photograph like this in which an anarchist militiaman is very clearly simulating to be dead lying upwards on the ground and with his Mauser rifle being held with her right hand while the middle area of the gun rests on its waist and the buttock on the soil in a very antinatural and not credible at all position ?
It is very evident that the mature officer (who wanted to control everything and brandish power) gave the militiaman visible in the image the order to pose that way on the ground and told Capa to photograph it.
And this waht was happened with every photograph made by Capa and Gerda Taro that day.
And in a context like this, during the first week of September 1936, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Capa and Gerda Taro only could photograph what they saw, ordered and staged by the mature officer.
It was not possible to pose any discrepancy or try to convince the mature officer to do things other way.
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
Therefore, there are a number of technical and photographic evidences clearly indicating that the Falling Soldier picture was not made by Gerda Taro with a Reflex Korelle camera and a 6 x 6 cm negative, some of which I have previously mentioned.
THE SUBJECT OF THE DIFFERENT FORMATS AND ASPECT RATIOS OF COPIES OF THE FALLING SOLDIER PICTURE THAT HAVE BEEN PRESERVED
- Regarding the formats and aspect ratios of the original copies of The Falling Soldier picture that have been preserved, it is a complex subject, because there are copies with aspect ratios more towards 24 x 36 mm format and others whose aspect ratio is more towards 4 x 5 (10 x 12 cm) large format.
To begin with, the original negative of the Falling Soldier picture was lost, so it is impossible to state that the image was certainly made or highly probably made by Gerda Taro with a 6 x 6 cm medium format Reflex Korelle camera.
In addition, no original print of The Falling Soldier photograph has survived.
- The famous print held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, whose size is 24,7 x 34 cm, features an almost 3:2 aspect ratio, and is evidently much more towards 24 x 36 mm format than to 4 x 5 (10 x 12 cm) format or 6 x 6 cm square format.
Bearing in mind the dimensions of this print, in my opinion the best and most important one existing in the world today (and whose brilliance accurately depicts the real light and very high temperature prevailing at the place near Espejo village where the photograph was made in the first week of September of 1936), there is a very high probability that 0,7 mm were added on top of the image and 2 cm cut from the lower side of the image, when the print was made using an analogue enlarger.
This print seems to have been made in late forties or early fifties, and was originally property of Alfred Stieglitz.
- The Falling Soldier photograph that appeared in the French Vu magazine on September 23, 1936 is much more panoramic, and obviously, a significant part of the upper area of the image was cut on editing the picture, though the lower and middle area of the image is exactly the same as the almost 24 x 36 mm format of The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York.
Besides, this very panoramic image of Vu magazine, highly probably made from the original 24 x 36 mm negative which Maria Eisner (Director of Alliance Photo Agency in Paris, which sold Robert Capa´s pictures then) sent to the French publication, depicts very faithfully the real exceedingly powerful light conditions, with the sun of Andalusia prevailing in the photograph, because it was made by Robert Capa with a very high temperature of approximately 40º C and abundant sun.
- The Falling Soldier photograph appeared in Life magazine on July 12, 1937, has been hugely and visibly retouched, as was confirmed to me by John G. Morris (considered the best picture editor ever and who was picture editor of Life magazine in London during the Second World War, Picture Editor of Ladies Home Journal — one of the first publications devoted to women — , The Washington Post, The New York Times and National Geographic, in addition to having received in the NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas, on July 21, 1969, the 70 mm format Kodak Ektachrome ISO 160 slides exposed by Amstrong and Aldrin on the Moon during the Space Program Apollo XI, with a Hasselblad 500 EL camera and a Zeiss Biogon 60 mm f/5.6 lens designed by Erhardt Glatzel) during some conversations that we had inside his house in Paris,
José Manuel Serrano Esparza having lunch with John G. Morris in a restaurant of Paris on September 12, 2009.
in a restaurant of the French capital and during some trips that we made together within the Paris subway.
John G. Morris expressed to me his absolute certainty that the picture of The Falling Soldier published in Life magazine on July 12, 1937 had been increased in surface upwards through retouching analog methods, particularly airbrushing, generating a new copy on photographic paper, darkening the image to increase drama and creating a new more square image, with aspect ratio 5:4, similar to the 4 x 5 (10 x 12 cm) large format.
He explained to me that the increase of surface of upper areas in prints made from original 24 x 36 mm format negatives until getting 5:4 or 4:3 aspect ratios was something common in Life, because it often adapted better to the magazine layout and the paging needs regarding texts, etc.
And I do believe that he was right, because the Falling Soldier picture reproduced in Life magazine with a 5:4 aspect ratio inherent to 4 x 5 (10 x 12 cm) large format is very dark and shows a luminosity that hasn´t got anything to do with the exceedingly bright Andalusian sun prevailing at the moment in which Robert Capa made the photograph in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September of 1936.
John G. Morris assured me that he had seen the Art Department of Life magazine to do many times that kind of retouching, increasing image upwards with respect to original 24 x 36 mm negatives and darkening the image to add more drama, so creating printing plates including those changes.
Even, on page 95 of the superb book " This is War ! Robert Capa at Work ", published by ICP/Steidl of New York in 2007, there is a picture of a print on photographic paper of a fifteen year old Chinese soldier with helmet made by Robert Capa in Hankou (China) in late March of 1938 with a 24 x 36 mm format Contax II rangefinder camera attached to a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2, which had been very airbrushed and darkened for the cover of Life magazine May 16, 1938, to enhance the drama of the image depicting such a young combatant,
resulting in a much darker photograph in that cover than the original negative,
which was much clearer (particularly the much brighter background behind the soldier) and had also been exposed under a scorching sun.
In addition, this airbrushed and darkened image was cropped and edited with a vertical format for that Life magazine cover, eliminating part of a building appearing on the left of the photograph in the original 24 x 36 mm negative.
- Regarding the print of Death of a Loyalist Militiaman of the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art of New York) size 18,1 x 23,8 cm, aspect ratio 4:3 and which was donated by Edward Steichen, John G. Morris told me that he believed that it had also been airbrushed and its original surface extended upwards, because the upper area of this picture (with darkened zones which haven´t anything to do with the very luminous appearance of the sky in Espejo at the moment in which Capa made the photograph with a temperature of 40º C and a powerful sun) is much darker than the lower half of the image.
And I think that he was right, because it is impossible that the landscape was so dark in the upper half of the image the day of the first week of September 1936 near Espejo village where Robert Capa got the picture, because there was a scorching sun and obviously the sky was much clearer and luminous.
John G. Morris inside his famous photographic library within his house in Paris. September 12, 2009. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
DEATH OF A LOYALIST MILITIAMAN, A PICTURE UNDOUBTEDLY MADE BY ROBERT CAPA
During our aforementioned meetings in Paris, John G. Morris expressed to me once and again his utter conviction that The Falling Soldier picture had been made by Robert Capa.
He was his best friend during his lifetime, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson and David Seymour Chim.
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
John G. Morris inside his home in Paris on October 12, 2009, holding between his hands a 30 x 40 cm print of a photograph made by José Manuel Serrano Esparza on June 16, 2009 from the old mill called Los Molinos del Campo, with the village of Espejo (Córdoba) in the background, and on far right of the image the area in which Robert Capa made the famous picture The Falling Soldier, which had been discovered in May 2009. Three different persons have atributed for themselves the discovery of Espejo as the place where the picture was made, a controversy that keeps on nowadays, though they don´t agree on the exact point where the photograph was taken. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza.
John G. Morris knew very well Robert Capa´s highly instinctive style of making photographs,
Robert Capa photographed by John G. Morris while he was getting pictures of German officers surrendering near St.-Malo, Brittany, France, on Aug. 10, 1944. Photo : John G. Morris / Contact Press Images.
since he was his picture editor for many years and saw him make photographs many times when both of them advanced together hundreds of kilometers with the American Army from Normandy to Paris between July and August of 1944.
If everything previously explained wasn´t enough, there are even more evidences proving that The Falling Soldier picture was undoubtedly made by Robert Capa :
Throughout his 22 years as a professional photographer, a significant trait of Capa´s style of getting pictures was the very fast creation of compositions in which often all or vast majority of the image information is on the left or on the right, a peculiarity that doesn´t appear in Gerda Taro´s images :
French man coming out of a polling place in Saint-Denis (France). May 3, 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Militiaman handling a machine gun in the surroundings of Huesca, Aragón Front. August 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Republican General Enrique Lister and the French writer André Malraux in the Catalonian Front. Early January 1939. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Member of the French Resistance armed with a submachine gun during the fight against German troops. Paris, August 25, 1944. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
American soldier walking near Troina (Sicily). August 4, 1943. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
A Sicilian peasant explaining an American officer the direction in which German troops have gone away. August 4, 1943. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
Even, if the very remote possibility that the Falling Soldier picture was made with a Reflex Korelle could be proved, things wouldn´t change anything regarding authorship, because that famous image was undoubtedly made by Robert Capa, and not by Gerda Taro.
As a matter of fact, when in addition to his 24 x 36 mm format Contax II, Robert Capa used a 6 x 6 cm medium format Rolleiflex Automat Model 3 camera (manufactured between 1939 and 1949), he also made pictures with compositions in which the main information of the image was on the left :
A disappointed old teenage member and soldier of the Hitlerjugend, having survived the Second World War, photographed by Robert Capa with his Rolleiflex Automat Model 1 with Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 75 mm f/3.5 (manufactured between 1937 and 1956) while he is walking beside a wall in which can be read in German : " An die Gewe (bre) ? Ohne Uns !, meaning " Rearm ? Not with us !, referring to the debate on the militarization of the Federal Republic of Germany in early fifties. Essen, Federal Republic of Germany. 1951. Photo : Robert Capa / ICP New York.
GERDA TARO WORKED UNDER VERY UNFAVOURABLE CONDITIONS WITH RESPECT TO ROBERT CAPA BETWEEN AUGUST 1936 AND FEBRUARY 1937, RISING TO THE CHALLENGE AND REACHING A GREAT LEVEL
It is very important to highlight that Gerda Taro performed at great level as a photographer with her Reflex Korelle camera during her seven first months in Spain, in spite of being immersed in much more difficult conditions than Capa to make the photographs, for a number of reasons :
- Robert Capa´s Leica rangefinder camera could expose 36 frames, while Gerda Taro´s Reflex Korelle could only expose twelve negatives with a medium format 120 film roll.
- Gerda Taro´s Reflex Korelle was much bigger and heavier (147 x 101 x 80 mm and 806 g) than Capa´s Leica II Model D (133 x 67 x 33 mm and 406 g).
- Gerda Taro´s Reflex Korelle was a much more difficult camera to handle than the Leica II (Model D), because its special design of shapes with a very large and square central structure with much thinner and rounded lateral areas, made it very little ergonomic and cumbersome to use, and besides, the front area of the camera with the mentioned large square structure and the lens, made it front heavier, so grabbing it was not very comfortable.
© José Manuel Serrano Esparza
- The Reflex Korelle had got a further significant drawback : its shutter release button was in the big front square structure of the camera, on its right side. This hampered very much the camera stability shooting handheld, because the photographer had to wrap the top right thinner area of the camera body with the palm of her right hand and simultaneously stretch her index ring to press the shutter release button.
- Capa´s Leica II (Model D) was a rangefinder camera lacking a swivelling mirror, so it could shoot handheld without trepidation at much slower shutter speeds than the Reflex Korelle, which was a medium format slr camera featuring a big swinging mirror, so most times, it needed to shoot at 1/100 s and often at 1/200 s to guarantee sharp photographs.
- The Reflex Korelle was a much slower handling and operation camera than the Leica II (Model D) used by Capa, because of its bigger dimensions, weight, bad ergonomics and a far slower shutter lag (time elapsed between pressing the shutter release of the camera and the exposure of the film) than the Leica II (Model D), whose shutter lag was of roughly 23 milliseconds, while the Reflex Korelle´shutter only fires once the mirror completely hits the top of the mirror box.
© José Manuel Serrano Esparza
- In the Reflex Korelle, the lever knob of the crank for cocking the shutter and advancing the medium format 120 film roll became operative when the photographer grabbed it with his/her index and thumb fingers, raising it and putting it vertical, after which two complete 360º turns had to be made, one clockwise (cocking the shutter) and following it a second anticlockwise (doing the film advance), which slowed down very much the shooting rate in comparison to a screwmount Leica.
Besides, this very slow mechanism brought about the risk of ruining the 120 film roll if the quoted both turns were not carefully made and had the added drawback that both for the shutter cocking and the film advance, it depended on a thin and fragile metallic cable which goes beneath the upper plate of the camera and often broke.
- In September of 1936, Robert Capa had been a professional photographer for 4 years, while Gerda Taro started getting pictures on August 5, 1936 in Barcelona.
In spite of it, Gerda Taro fought tooth and nail, made very good photographs with her Reflex Korelle and showed a remarkable talent and passion for photography.
This is exceedingly praiseworthy, because she had to do her photographs under much more strenuous working conditions than Capa, as a consequence of the photographic gear she was using, which was far less optimized for fast and dynamic photojournalism than Capa´s Leica.
That´s why from the moment in which Gerda Taro changed from Reflex Korelle to Leica III and 24 x 36 mm format Estman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic black and white film in February of 1936, when she began a very hard learning curve making photographs in the University City and Parque del Oeste of Madrid (obtaining 37 images, of which seventeen were underexposed, on using zone focusing in low level winter conditions, which made stopping down to f/8 or f/11 at adequate speed to avoid excessive blurring by trepidation more difficult than under powerful sunlight), Ruins after the Bombing of Madrid by Francoist aviation (42 photographs, of which six are underexposed) and Jarama Battle in early March of 1937 (73 photographs, of which 34 were underexposed), it was finally a liberation for her with respect to the much slower and diffilcult to use 6 x 6 cm Reflex Korelle Camera, so she worked already in the same conditions as Capa, becoming an extraordinary photojournalist, as proved by her landmark reportages in Valsequillo, La Granjuela and Brunete between June and July of 1937 :
https://gmpphoto.blogspot.com/2020/07/valsequillo-cordoba-gerda-taro-with.html
http://elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com/2011/10/la-granjuela-cordoba-gerda-taro-june.html
http://elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com/2011/10/gerda-taro-in-brunete-battle-and-last.html
Therefore, it is no wonder that she decided to separate from Robert Capa and followed her own career until her death on July 26, 1937, after being rolled over by a Republican T-26 tank the day before in the north of Villanueva de la Cañada, during the last day of Brunete Battle.
Evidence clearly suggest that she would have become soon a world-class photographer if she had survived the Spanish Civil War.
Regarding the accusations that both Robert Capa and Gerda Taro have recently received of liars, photographers without ethics and makers of scenifications, because of the Falling Soldier picture, it is something completely unfounded and false.
Both Robert Capa and Gerda Taro were great professional photographers, who shouldn´t be judged only for one picture, because Robert Capa made approximately 80,000 pictures in five wars during twenty-two years, while Gerda Taro made many hundreds of pictures during eleven months between August 5, 1936 and July 25, 1937 in the Spanish Civil War.
But there´s more.
ROBERT CAPA AND GERDA TARO DIDN´T DO ANY STAGING OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN ESPEJO (CÓRDOBA) THE DAY THE FALLING SOLDIER PICTURE WAS MADE. THE ORDERS AND INSTRUCTIONS TO THE MILITIAMEN IN EACH AND EVERY PHOTOGRAPH WERE GIVEN BY A MATURE OFFICER WITH MILITARY CAP APPEARING IN SOME OF THE IMAGES
There are some very significant evidence proving that neither Capa nor Gerda Taro staged anything with the Falling Soldier picture and the other photographs both of them made that day of anarchist militiamen of CNT and FAI under a scorching sun during the first week of September of 1936 in Espejo (Córdoba).
Checking some of the pictures made that day by Robert Capa with his Leica and Gerda Taro with her Reflex Korelle, it is very evident that the orders were given at every moment by a mature officer in his forties who appears in some of the photographs wearing white clothes, military cap, a Mauser rifle and giving instructions to the militiamen :
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
Picture made by Robert Capa in which appears the mature officer with military cap on the right of the image aiming a 7 x 57 mm Mauser rifle, while four Anarchist militiamen from Alcoy (Alicante) on his left do the same thing.
Capa got the picture using zone focusing, with the Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens of his Leica II (Model D) distance scale set to 4 meters and f/8 to obtain sharpness area between 2,80 m and 7 meters. That´s why the two men nearest to the camera have good sharpness and the two ones more distant appear slightly out of focus.
Though the cortijos visible in the left background of the image and the far mountains are out of the sharpness area of the Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens stopped down to f/8, their contours can be discerned thanks to the excellent acutance of the Eastman Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate black and white film with which Capa made this photograph and all of the other ones of The Falling Soldier series.
Robert Capa measured light through estimation, using the Sunny f/16 rule, so if this day of the first week of September 1936 he was using a black and white film featuring Weston 32 sensitivity (roughly equivalent to ISO 40), he could take advantage of the very brilliant sun prevailing at the moment, using very probably f/8 with a shutter speed of 1/200 s (his screwmount Leica hadn´t got mark for 1/250 s), getting sharpness area between 2,80 m and 7 meters, or even perhaps f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/125 s (1/100 s in his Leica), obtaining depth of field between 2,7m and 10 m.
Robert Capa and Gerda Taro (who also measured through estimation) didn´t give any order to the militiamen to pose in any specific way.
Robert Capa didn´t speak Spanish. He only spoke Hungarian and German, so he couldn´t give any orders to the militiamen, who spoke Spanish.
Gerda Taro spoke German, French, English and some Spanish that she had learnt in a private school in Switzerland, but she didn´t give any orders to the militiamen either.
The Alcoyanos militiamen from CNT and FAI were very independent men, who didn´t obey the orders of Republican Army officers, communist commanders or anybody not belonging to their ranks or having power over them for some reason.
Photo : Gerda Taro / © ICP New York
Photograph made by Gerda Taro with her Reflex Korelle to five militiamen (one of them being The Falling Soldier) and the mature officer on far right of the image while they go up a slope of land.
This mature officer going up the slope walking, has clearly a lot of power over the militiamen and is giving orders to them, because the young men are running the slope upwards, following his instructions.
Selective frame of the image, including the lower half of Gerda Taro´s photograph showing five militiamen (one of them being The Falling Soldier) and the mature officer with military cap on the right of the image, very clearly giving orders to the militiamen regarding the movements they have to do while being photographed.
It is very evident that this mature officer was the person who gave the orders to the militiamen that day and how they had to run, direction of the runnings and jumpings, how to pose, etc.
The only thing that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro could do was to photograph what happened after every instruction given by this mature officer to the militiamen.
THE PICTURE OF A SECOND MILITIAMAN, SUPPOSELY WOUNDED ON THE GROUND AFTER BEEN SHOT BY AN ENEMY BULLET, WHO WAS ORDERED TO LIE THAT WAY ON THE TERRAIN, WAS ALSO DONE BY ROBERT CAPA WITH A LEICA II (MODEL D) WITH A LEITZ ELMAR 50 MM F/3.5 LENS
Shortly after getting the famous photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, whose main character is clad with a white shirt,
Robert Capa made another picture of a second militiaman who appears presumably wounded by an enemy bullet on the ground, with both legs stretched, the body slanted backwards, and grabbing with his right hand a Mauser rifle having fallen backwards and whose barrel tip is touching the soil.
This militiaman is in a very odd and forced position, with his right arm bent, the elbow very visible and his hand exceedingly backwards, weakly holding the Mauser rifle.
It is a picture that has also been retouched with air brushing, and whose upper area has also been darkened and increased upwards with respect the 24 x 36 mm format negative with which Capa got the picture with his Leica II (Model D) coupled to a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens, until obtaining a more square 5:4 aspect ratio.
The photographs shows clearly the image aesthetics yielded by that very small lens, with remarkable sharpness and level of detail, because this second militiaman is still on the ground, so there isn´t any blurring because of trepidation as happens in the picture The Falling Soldier, whose main character is in movement, falling backwards.
Id est, in this second photograph in which there is a second militiaman fallen on the ground, supposedly because of an enemy bullet, it isn´t that Robert Capa has had time to set the camera with the adequate combination of shutter speed and diaphragm, as some sources wrongly indicate.
Before making this picture (and vast majority of all the photographs made that day), the photographer had the scale of distances of his lens already set in 4 meters, having chosen f/8, so he attained a sharpness area between 1,80 m and 7 m, being the configuration with which he had done the famous picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman a few seconds or minutes before.
That´s why most of the surface of this second image with another militiaman has so much definition and level of detail, visible not only inn the body, apparel and rifle falling backwards, but also in the wheat stems, which appear with much more sharpness than in the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, because it is a photograph lacking movement.
On the other hand, this picture was made by Robert Capa with this second militiaman being almost exactly on the spot where he made the Falling Soldier picture shortly before, both of them under orders and instructions of the mature officer, but now with a llower taking angle and capturing roughly double the terrain with wheat stems, as can be seen comparing both images :
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
Robert Capa didn´t use any tripod to do these two pictures. His very agile and dynamic style of getting pictures, moving at great speed and steadily looking for different taking angles, would have made being loaded with a tripod something very uncomfortable and would have hugely reduced his freedom of movements and ability to make photographs.
Besides, if Capa had used a tripod to make the picture Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, the stretch of ground with wheat around the militiaman wearing the white shirt (whose body appears a bit blurred by trepidation, particularly his right foot, head, right arm and Mauser rifle, as a consequence of the relatively slow shutter speed of 1/100 s) would have appear sharp, but it appears blurred by trepidation, because Capa got this picture holding his 24 x 36 mm format Leica between his hands, with a very fast and instinctive shot, moving a bit his camera during the photographic act, just at the moment in which the militiaman begins to fall backwards.
Therefore, both pictures were made by him shooting handheld his 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) with a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens,
taking as a reference for the framing in the left part of the image two big stones visible on the ground (next to a thick stem of fallen wheat lying on the ground, almost parallel to the lower border of both photographs, and beside which there is another wheat steam being much longer and thinner, vertical with respect to the ground and slightly bent on the right), leaving some space on the left.
That´s why in both images there is almost the same distance from the lower left border of each photograph to the fallen short and thick wheat steam lying on the ground :
In the two pictures, both militiamen appear almost exactly on the same spot of land, an unbelievable and unconvincing coincidence regarding the possibility that the two men have been hit by an enemy bullet exactly at that point and with so few seconds or minutes of difference one after the other.
It has obviously been a staging, made by the mature officer (out of image, but being very near), who has ordered both militiamen to pose beside the two big stones, giving insteructions to the first one (the most famous militiaman, wearing a white shirt) to pose standing and raise his Mauser rifle with his right arm, and shortly after to the second one (clad in darker clothes) to lie on the floor pretending to be badly wounded by an enemy bullet and in a very forced position, with his right arm bent and the gun falling backwards and touching the floor with its barrel tip.
Therefore, neither Robert Capa not Gerda Taro didn´t stage any picture that day with this supposedly wounded militiaman on the ground, or the famous militiaman of The Falling Soldier, or with any other of the rest of photographs in which more militiamen appear.
The orders and instructions to militiamen were given in each and every picture by the mature officer with military cap who appears in some of the images.
Therefore, there isn´t eny doubt that it was this veteran officer, and not Robert Capa or Gerda Taro, who gave the orders to the militiamen that day, indicating them how they had to run, jump, pose raising their rifles, simulate to be aiming their rifles at a nonexisting enemy, pretend to be dead lying on the ground, etc.
The only thing that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro could do was to photograph what happened after each instruction given to the militiamen by the mature officer.
A NEW DECISIVE PICTURE CLEARING THINGS EVEN MORE
There is even a further evidence confirming that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro didn´t give orders that day and hadn´t any power over the militiamen :
On December 16, 2013 I could find this photograph in one of the pages of the 1937 book " The Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty ", compiled by A. Ramos Oliveira, published by the Press Department of the Spanish Embassy in London and printed by Waterloo & Sons Ltd :
Photography appearing in one of the pages of the aforementioned book, without indicating its author or the place where it was taken.
But his author was Robert Capa the day in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first week of September of 1936 when The Falling Soldier picture was made, along with many other photographs of militiamen running, jumping, posing, simulating to be firing with their rifles, etc.
The mature officer, visible on far right of the image, giving orders to three militiamen going up a slope of land (one of them on far left of the image, being The Falling Soldier).
This is an image that was made by Robert Capa with his Leica II (Model D) and Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens, also leveraging zone focusing, with the distance scale on the lens barrel set at 4 meters and choosing f/8, to get depth of field between 2,80 m and 7 m.
That´s why the overall sharpness of this picture is so good and even a significant percentage of the wheat visible in the image appears with great definition and level of detail.
In this regard, the symbiosis between the remarkable resolving power of the Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 designed by Max Berek (Head of Optical Deisgn at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), the stability shooting handheld of the Leica II (Model D) rangefinder created by Oskar Barnack (Director of Miniaturized Mechanics at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar) and the Agfa Rodinal developer (optimizing the sharpness in contours) was highly efficient.
Selective framing of the photograph, including the three militiamen appearing in the image. The one visible on far left is The Falling Soldier.
A further selective framing of the photograph, only including The Falling Soldier, on far left of the image.
In 1936, the presence of a photographer was quite an event, and every militiaman was eager to be photographed,
The mature officer surrounded by eleven militiamen (most of them raising their Mauser rifles) beside a tent near Espejo (Córdoba). First week of September 1936. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
so the mature officer,
Selective framing of the previous photograph, in which can be perfectly discerned, in the middle of the image, the mature officer that gave the orders to the militiamen the day The Falling Soldier picture was made by Robert Capa in Espejo (Córdoba) during the first day of September of 1936.
who had a lot of power over the militiamen, didn´t have any problem to give orders to them.
In addition, the presence of Gerda Taro, a very pretty woman in a context of militiamen who had been inside tents and trenches for some weeks under a sweltering heat, surely raised the motivation of the militiamen to allow Capa and Gerda Taro to photograph them doing what the mature officer with military cap ordered at every moment.
The identity of the mature officer, who had power over the militiamen and gave them the orders that day, was unveiled by the Spanish newspaper Público.es in 2011 :
He was Rafael Medina Ramírez " El Berenjeno ", born in 1893, Chief of the War Comittee which had been created in Espejo (Córdoba) on July 22, 1936, four days after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and the person whose mission was to organize the civil militiamen in this part of the front.
The identification was made in 2011 by his grandson Antonio Santos, who was able to discern his face
Rafael Medina Ramírez " El Berenjeno " photographed by Robert Capa in a trench near Espejo village from a distance of approximately 2 meters, using zone focusing, having probably put in advance the scale distance of the Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens in 2,5 m and choosing f/11 to get depth of field between 1,8 m and 3,9 m. That´s why in spite of the very near distance from which Capa gets the picture, the image has excellent sharpness all over its surface. Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York.
in one of the pictures made by Capa in Espejo in which he appears simulating to be aiming his Mauser rifle leaned on the border of a trench, in addition to providing the information that he was shot in Castro del Río three years later, on November, 26, 1939.
This important finding, made by Antonio Santos, was published by the Diario Público in 2011.
THE BODY OF THE FAMOUS MILITIAMAN ORIENTED TOWARDS ESPEJO CONFIRMS EVEN MORE THE STAGE CARRIED OUT BY RAFAEL MEDINA RAMÍREZ
Neither Robert Capa nor Gerda Taro had staged the photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman with the body of the famous civil combatant wearing a white shirt oriented towards Espejo, but towards the mountains in the background, because evidently, both of them had been fully aware that a shot coming from the Republican lines, killing one of their comrades, wouldn´t make any sense.
Photo : Robert Capa / © ICP New York
But the man with the white shirt being the main character of the Falling Soldier picture appears in the famous image with his body oriented towards Espejo, so if that man died as a consequence of a shot, the shot had to come from the Republican lines, something making no sense, as was proved by the journalist Ernest Alós on May 16, 2010, when he showed in an article of El Periódico de Catalunya a sketch that he discovered in the Military Archive of Ávila (Spain) used by the Francoist Army during its attack to Espejo between September 22 and 25, 1936, led by colonel Sáenz de Buruaga and integrated by two columns, one under the command of major Sagrado and the other mone under the command of major Baturone.
Therefore, such hypothesis of a shot coming from the Republican lines was something virtually impossible the day during the first week of 1936 in which the photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman was made, because there weren´t any combats in Espejo area at the moment, and the front was quiet.
But also in this regard, it is very apparent that the Falling Soldier picture (in the same way as happened with the rest of photographs which were made that day by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro) was staged by Rafael Medina Ramírez, who though doesn´a appear in the image, was very near, at very few meters, and had previously ordered the militiaman to pose with his right arm raised brandising his Máuser rifle, but with his body oriented towards Espejo, instead of being oriented towards the moungtains in the background, only way in which an enemy bullet making impact in his body would have made sense.
It seems evident that Rafael Medina Ramírez, in addition to having given the orders to the militiamen that day, staging all and every photograph that were made, also wanted to control everything, and was very careful to avoid that the very strong defensive positions of the Republican Army in Espejo didn´t appear in the photographs, and that is what happened, verifying even more that Death of a Loyalist Militiaman picture was staged by Rafael Medina Ramírez, who gave instructions to the militiaman clad in a white shirt to pose with his Mauser rifle and simulate tlo fall backwards, so Robert Capa simply photographed what he saw, orchestrated by Rafael Medina Ramírez.
Neither Robert Capa nor Gerda Taro could hold the reins at any moment or try to do the things in other way
That´s why not even in one of the pictures made by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro that day appears any Republican cannons, heavy machine guns or any of the Republican Army professional officers who were in Espejo at the moment, including the well-known major Pérez Salas.
In his book " La Campaña de Andalucía ", published by San Martín editorial in 1986, colonel Martínez Bande (one of the most important military experts on the Spanish Civil War) explains that after assaulting Espejo on September 25, 1936 in a very bloody battle (with 108 Republican dead soldiers and militiamen and 22 dead Francoist soldiers), the Nationalist troops captured eight 75 mm caliber pieces of artillery, two 81 mm caliber mortars, an armoured lorry, five transport trucks, etc.
If Robert Capa and Gerda Taro had had a minimum of power that day to get the pictures as they wanted, they would undoubtedly photographed the many cannons, heavy machine guns, trucks, etc, that the Republican Army had placed defending Espejo village, but Rafael Medina Ramírez didn´t allow it, becuase the Republican major Pérez Salas was the top authority, an artillery top officer with great fame and accuracy, and he didn´t want that the exact position of his cannons and machine guns appear in any picture.
A TIMELESS ICON
Death of a Loyalist Militiaman is an extraordinary, timeless and iconic picture, made by Robert Capa, a genius of war photography in the shortest distances.
It is an irrepeatible image.
There have been a lot of people who have tried for years to emulate this famous picture, intentionally falling backwards while being photographed, with results broadly speaking ranging between the grotesque and the comical one.
The Falling Soldier image is hugely dramatic, very convulse, full of dynamism, and beholding it doesn´t leave anybody indiferent.
It is evident that as a graphic document to convey what war is about, the image works like a charm.
It is impressive that Robert Capa could create such a realistic and dramatic picture, masterfully capturing the movement of the militiaman falling backwards, controlling the adequate degree of blurring because of trepidation to provide the image with that breathtaking feeling of motion, though it was almost certainly a staging, not directed by him or Gerda Taro, but by Rafael Medina Ramírez.
The only certainty we have is that Death of a Loyalist Militiaman was undoubtedly made by Robert Capa with a Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera, Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens and Eastman Kodak Nitrate Panchromatic black and white film, but as the 24 x 36 mm format original negative of this picture was lost, this mythical image keeps on being filled with mystery and unutterable aura, as well as being a photographic and creative masterpiece, whose message is still utterly valid.
On the other hand, though every evidence indicates that the famous militiaman didn´t die and stood up again, there are some exceedingly meaningful details making that in apite of being extremely improbable, in my opinion it can´t be totally excluded the hypothesis that in the middle of this collective spree of militiamen running, jumping, posing with their Mauser rifles, etc, under the orders of the mature officer, something unexpected could have happened.
Because the realism of Death of a Loyalist Militiaman image is breathtaking, the man wearing a white shirt was standing, still on the ground with his Mauser rifle raised before the picture was made, and he appears clearly falling backwards with great strength, the fingers of his left hand appear in claw under his left thigh, and the degree of autheticity with which the right hand has lost grabbing strength with respect to the Mauser rifle is amazing.
This man had to hit himself on falling backwards on the ground, and his mauser rifle undoubtedly fell also on it.
And the identity of this militiaman remains an enigma.
