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Death in the Making
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 Soldier image 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.
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 Soldier image 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.
112 pages, Hardcover
Published October 13, 2020
About the author
Robert Capa
83 books58 followersRobert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann) was a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.
Friedman had fled political repression in Hungary when he was a teenager, moving to Berlin, where he enrolled in college. He witnessed the rise of Hitler, which led him to move to Paris, where he met and began to work with his professional partner Gerda Taro, and they began to publish their work separately. Capa's deep friendship with David Seymour-Chim was captured in Martha Gellhorn's novella, Two by Two. He subsequently covered five wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and the First Indochina War, with his photos published in major magazines and newspapers.
During his career he risked his life numerous times, most dramatically as the only civilian photographer landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, and the liberation of Paris. His friends and colleagues included Ernest Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck and director John Huston.
In 1947, for his work recording World War II in pictures, U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Capa the Medal of Freedom. That same year, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers. Hungary has issued a stamp and a gold coin in his honor.
He was killed when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam.
Friedman had fled political repression in Hungary when he was a teenager, moving to Berlin, where he enrolled in college. He witnessed the rise of Hitler, which led him to move to Paris, where he met and began to work with his professional partner Gerda Taro, and they began to publish their work separately. Capa's deep friendship with David Seymour-Chim was captured in Martha Gellhorn's novella, Two by Two. He subsequently covered five wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and the First Indochina War, with his photos published in major magazines and newspapers.
During his career he risked his life numerous times, most dramatically as the only civilian photographer landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, and the liberation of Paris. His friends and colleagues included Ernest Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck and director John Huston.
In 1947, for his work recording World War II in pictures, U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Capa the Medal of Freedom. That same year, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers. Hungary has issued a stamp and a gold coin in his honor.
He was killed when he stepped on a landmine in Vietnam.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2024
A powerful piece of photojournalism detailing the enthusiasm and modernist progressiveness surrounding the Spanish Second Republic and the anti-fascist counter revolution. The prose supporting the eclectic photographs serves an elegiac lament to those who died defending the Spanish Republic. The photographs themselves aren’t the atrocity exhibition you might expect. They detail life on the frontlines for the Republican army with an undercurrent of hope and respect for those who stood against the forces of Spanish fascism.
Death in the Making stand as a testament to the nobility of the Republican cause at the time of its publication in 1937, when the Republic still had agency outside of Stalinist domination and when it still had the chance of repelling the fascist insurrection against it. It can also be read as an excoriation of the American and Anglo-French policy of neutrality; a policy that forced the Spanish Republicans further into the hands of Soviet influence, and eventually doomed it to the Falange. The book was published before the fall of the Republic. Knowing that fascism in the Spanish Civil War would eventually prevail in alliance with the clergy and conservatism, colours it with a pervading cloud of melancholy.
A powerful book for anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War, anti-fascism, and photojournalism. The version I read was a remastered edition, featuring supplementary essays and information on the book’s history and cultural significance within the journalistic cannon of the 1930s.
Death in the Making stand as a testament to the nobility of the Republican cause at the time of its publication in 1937, when the Republic still had agency outside of Stalinist domination and when it still had the chance of repelling the fascist insurrection against it. It can also be read as an excoriation of the American and Anglo-French policy of neutrality; a policy that forced the Spanish Republicans further into the hands of Soviet influence, and eventually doomed it to the Falange. The book was published before the fall of the Republic. Knowing that fascism in the Spanish Civil War would eventually prevail in alliance with the clergy and conservatism, colours it with a pervading cloud of melancholy.
A powerful book for anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War, anti-fascism, and photojournalism. The version I read was a remastered edition, featuring supplementary essays and information on the book’s history and cultural significance within the journalistic cannon of the 1930s.
April 8, 2021
This new version is fantastic: easy to get a copy, great quality on the images, historic feel of the text retained. So glad this is available!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews