战火洗礼——记新闻摄影家罗伯特·卡帕（一）

　　　　　ROBERT CAPA
"To me war is like an aging actress - more and more dangerous and less and less photogenic[1]."

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you are not close enough."

Part 1

　The most tragic photographer in the 20th Century, Robert Capa ended his brief life on earth on May 25, 1954 when he stepped on a land mine on an obscure battlefield in Indochina[2] while on another war assignment. Nevertheless
[3], it made him a legend.

　　Born Andrei Friedmann in Budapest in 1913, and deciding that there was little future under the regime in Hungary, he left home at 18 and found a job as a darkroom apprentice with a Berlin picture agency. When Hitler came to power, he took off[4] to Paris with his Polish fiancee, Gerda Taro, and struggled to establish himself in the rugged business of freelance journalism. His struggle was recounted in John Hersey's classical magazine article "The Man Who Invented Himself". The two came up with[5] a plan of Friedmann taking the pictures, Gerda selling them but credit was given to a non existent Robert Capa. Using the richness of Capa, Gerda sold each of his photos for 150 francs and more, three times the prevailing rate. The secret was soon found out by editor Lucien Vogel of Vue. Not only did he not mind, he sent Capa and Gerda to Spain[6] where his picture of a dying Spanish soldier made him famous overnight[7]. It was also on this assignment that Gerda died. The grief-striken Capa went off to China where he took a series of memorable pictures of the battle of Taierchwang.