Robert Capa - Death in the Making (MINT CONDITION, SHRINK-WRAPPED) - 2020

FANTASTIC, QUICKLY SOLD-OUT FAKSIMILE REPRINT OF THE SUPER RARE AND SUPER EXPENSIVE ORIGINAL by photography legend and most famous war photographer Robert Capa - in BRANDNEW CONDITION.

Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, The photobook, vol 1, page 139.

FIRST, MOST IMPORTANT TITLE BY ROBERT CAPA - documentating the Spanish Civil War.

"For Gerda Taro, who spent one year at the spanish front, and who stayed on."
- Madrid, December, 1937. R.C. -

'If the photo isn't good enough, it's because you're not close enough.'
- Robert Capa -

New, mint, unread, still originally shrink-wrapped in publisher's plastic foil.
COLLECTOR'S COPY.

THIS IS THE LAST EXCLUSIVE PHOTOBOOK AUCTION by 5Uhr30.com in 2025 -
with more than 100 great lots from my personal collection and from recent acquisitions.

Once a cult-status rarity, Capa`s classic, impassioned Spanish Civil War photobook is available again with new, high-quality image scans and supplementary research. 'Robert Capa`s Death in the Making was published in 1938 as a poignant tribute to the men and women, civilians and soldiers alike, fighting in Spain against Franco`s fascist insurrection. The book included only one year of images from the Republican position, but covered the spectrum of emotions of a civil war, from the initial excitement to the more harrowing realities of modern warfare. But over time, after World War II and rising anti-communist paranoia in the United States, association with the Spanish Civil War was a liability and the book became obscured. Today, however, Death in the Making has reached cult status, not least because copies are hard to find (particularly ones with Capa`s famous Falling Soldierimage on the dust jacket), but also for its passionate call to defend democracy. With new scans of all the images, this remastered facsimile of the original edition reproduces the original layout by photographer André Kertész, the original caption text by Capa and preface by writer Jay Allen. The muddy 1938 publication is entirely transformed by high-quality printing to reflect the beauty and pathos of the original intention. This edition also includes a new essay with new research on the making and the reception of the original book, and a complete checklist identifying the author, location and date of each image. The most important new information is that Robert Capa and Gerda Taro are not the only photographers in the book, but also included was work by their good friend and colleague Chim, later known as David Seymour.'
(from the publisher)

Like always 5Uhr30.com guarantees detailed and accurate descriptions, 100% transport protection, 100% transport insurance, and of course, combined shipping - worldwide.

Damiani, New York. 2020. First edition, first printing of the first reprint of that title.

Hardcover with dustjacket. 222 x 286 mm. 112 pages. Photos: Robert Capa. Text in English.

Legendary first book title by Robert Capa, here as wonderful faksimile reprint - in perfect condition (originally published in 1938 by Covici Friede Publishers, New York. 1938).

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Capa is the most famous war photographer and well-known for excellent photobooks, like 'Slightly Out Of Focus' (Andrew Roth, Book of 101 Books, page 126/127. Martin Parr, The photobook, vol 1, page 28/29. Hasselblad Center, page 176/177. 802 books of the M.+M. Auer collection, page 324).

From 1936 onwards, Capa's coverage of the Spanish Civil War appeared regularly. His picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded earned him his international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war. After his companion, Gerda Taro, was killed in Spain, Capa travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New York a year later. As a correspondent in Europe, he photographed the Second World War, covering the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge On 3 December 1938 Picture Post introduced 'The Greatest War Photographer in the World: Robert Capa' with a spread of 26 photographs taken during the Spanish Civil War. But the 'greatest war photographer' hated war. Born Andre Friedmann to Jewish parents in Budapest in 1913, he studied political science at the Deutsche Hochschule fŸr Politik in Berlin. Driven out of the country by the threat of a Nazi regime, he settled in Paris in 1933. He was represented by Alliance Photo and met the journalist and photographer Gerda Taro. Together, they invented the 'famous' American photographer Robert Capa and began to sell his prints under that name. He met Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, and formed friendships with fellow photographers David 'Chim' Seymour and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In 1947 Capa founded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert. On 25 May 1954 he was photographing for Life in Thai-Binh, Indochina, when he stepped on a landmine and was killed. The French army awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palm posthumously. The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award was established in 1955 to reward exceptional professional merit. Allegations that Capa's famous photograph, titled 'Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936' was a fake first emerged in 1975, and the controversy raged on for decades Ñ with a superabundance of hot tempers and a dearth of objective analysis or research Ñ until a fantastic breakthrough occurred in August 1996, when Rita Grosvenor, a British journalist based in Spain, wrote an article about a Spaniard, named Mario Brot—ns Jord‡, who had identified the Falling Soldier as Federico Borrell Garc’a and had confirmed in the Spanish government's archives that Borrell had been killed in battle at Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936.

'Robert Capa is one of the most well-known photojournalists of the twentieth century. Born Endre Ernö Friedmann (Budapest, Hungary, October 22, 1913-Thai-Binh, Indochina, May 25, 1954) to a Jewish family of tailors, he studied in Berlin, then fled to Paris in 1933. Quickly gaining an international reputation for his photographs of the Spanish Civil War, he later escaped to New York in 1939. He covered World War II as an Allied photographer, cofounded Magnum Photos in 1947 (with Chim, among others), and made several books based on his photographs of travel in Europe, the USSR, and Israel. He died after stepping on a landmine in 1954.'
(from the publisher)

'Gerda Taro was one of the first women to be recognized as a photojournalist, and the first to be killed while reporting on war. Born Gerta Pohorylle in Stuttgart, Germany (August 1, 1910-Brunete, Spain, July 26, 1937) and raised in Leipzig in a middle-class Jewish family, she fled to Paris in 1933. She traveled back and forth from Paris to Spain for the first year of the Spanish Civil War, and while covering the battle of Brunete, she was struck by a tank and died.'
(from the publisher)

'Chim, born Dawid Szymin (Warsaw, Poland, November 20, 1911-Suez, Egypt, November 10, 1956), arrived in Paris in 1932 and within two years was a regular contributor to Regards with his photographs of the Popular Front. He covered the entirety of the Spanish Civil War and escaped France in 1939 for New York. He returned to Europe in 1947 and established himself as a foreign correspondent with the byline David Seymour. In 1956 he was killed while covering the Suez Crisis.'
(from the publisher)