« Robert Capa. Photographe de guerre »

Musée de la Libération de Paris - Musée du général Leclerc - Musée Jean Moulin

Robert Capa invented a style: the war photographer, eye fixed to the viewfinder, always with the scoop in mind. An engaged witness, his outlook left a lasting mark on the history of photojournalism and shaped the new figure of the war photographer. The musée de la Libération de Paris - musée du général Leclerc - musée Jean Moulin offers, with the exceptional collaboration of Magnum Photos, a contextualized reading of his work. More than sixty period press prints are presented alongside magazines, books, documents and personal objects. Together, these one hundred and sixty pieces trace the journey of a young Hungarian immigrant who became an icon of modern photography. The "Capa style," this direct and immersive way of photographing war, profoundly influenced the profession, which remains exposed to dangers in the field. In 2024, according to Reporters sans frontières, fifty-four journalists still lost their lives in the course of their mission, most of them in conflict zones. By presenting Robert Capa's work, the exhibition offers a historical perspective on an ever-current reality: the risk one must take to report on war. Robert Capa is THE war photographer with legendary images. He invented the model: necessarily American, casual and charming, a drinker and gambler, ready to risk his life to take THE iconic photograph. That covers the mythical side of the man and the life he chose for himself. This representation, however, conceals another story: that of a Hungarian exile in Paris between the two world wars, who reinvented himself as Robert Capa, a remarkable war photographer. Capa refined the craft, concerned with producing images that could be distributed by the press, as shown by the prints and magazines presented. Beyond the romanticized narrative, examining his journey and his images allows us to approach his life, his commitments, and above all to understand why, nearly a century later, his photographs remain legendary.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗