CAPA’S ICONIC D-DAY IN LIGHT OF MAGNIFICENT ELEVEN
ABOUT
This blog is about Magnificent Eleven, the
photos taken by Hungarian photographer Robert Capa on D-Day. Capa was with the
second wave of troops landing on the American invasion beach, Omaha Beach, who
faced heavy resistance from German troops in their bunkers within the Atlantic
Wall. While under constant fire Capa took 106 pictures, all but eleven of which
were destroyed in a processing accident in the Life Magazine photo lab in
London. The surviving photos have since been called the Magnificent Eleven.
BACKGROUND
About Seventy years ago the Western Allies
launched a long anticipated invasion of mainland Europe. The delay that accrued
due to the bad weather conditions on June 6, 1944 was chosen as “D-Day”.
The German defenders were already expecting an attack on Calais, the part of
France which was closest to the Allied staging areas in England, although the
actual target was Normandy. The operation was mainly based on inland attack by
paratroopers and glider-borne infantry combined with a beach assault by
British, Canadian and US troops. Robert Cap who was contract photographer for Life Magazine in London and have already
documented the war in the Mediterranean, was given an assignment to photograph
the invasion and arranged to go ashore with the first wave of US soldiers
tasked assaulting “Omaha Beach” The attack was so brutal that it’s been called as
“Bloody Omaha” ever since. Capa explained his experience of that morning in his
book ‘Slightly out of Focus’ as “The bullets chased me back every time. (3)
“IF
YOUR PICTURES AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH, YOU AREN’T CLOSE ENOUGH.” (1)
One of only 18 American photographers were given
credentials by the US Armed Forces to cover the preparation and execution of
the invasion, Capa arrived at Omaha Beach around 7 am and captured frame after
frame, putting him in the middle of gruesome action. When all was said and
done, Capa sent back four rolls of 35mm film to John G. Morris, his photo editor for Life Magazine in London to be
developed and printed.
Robert Capa, D-Day
image, contax 35mm Roll 3.
As soon as Morris received the film from Capa, he sent
all four rolls to the labs to be developed and prints made; however after just
few minutes in the lab, a technician came running to Morris to tell him that
first three rolls came out completely blank and image were lost due to extra
heat. Fingers crossed they developed the last roll and to Morris relief, 11
framed survived the invasion.
Robert Capa’s ruined
frames from D-Day June 6, 1994.
“Behind the photo: Robert Capa's D-Day” shows
how the framed photojournalist’s negatives were almost lost.
The journey of Capa’s film that followed, explained in
detail in the video by Capa’s editor and long time friend John G. Morris, was
almost equally as perilous. Capa’s filme survived only because he carried it
off the beach himself. His colleague Bob Landry’s film along with the film nine
other photographers and cinematographers was lost, having been handed off to a
colonel who dropped the whole pack in the ocean while boarding a transport
ship. Although Capa shot approximately 106 frames on the beach but only handful
have survived. (2)
Robert Capa’s only existing
D-Day frames from 6 June 1994, Courtsey Wikimedia commons
Capa’s iconic image
shows American troops landing on Omaha Beach on June 6th. Credit:
Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
A Hungarian who lived for
some time in France earlier in his career, he wrote of the dramatic arrival in
his memoir, ‘Slightly out of Focus’.
“My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and
a German machine gun, spitting, bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my
return. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and
the smoking beach in the background – this was good enough for the
photographer.” – ROBERT CAPA –
SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS (1)
Soldiers take over as they advance to
shore. Credit: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
Capa was with the first wave of
American troops, landing at dawn. Credit: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
Capa was experiencing one of D-Day’s most
dangerous landings and it was his longest day. Early estimates of 2,000 US
causalities are now thought to have underestimated the cost experienced on this
first day alone.
“The tide was coming in and now the water
reached the farewell letter to my family in my breast pocket,” he
wrote, as he described mortar shell explosions whereby every piece of shrapnel
found a man’s body.
Anti-tank defence obstacles provided
a nightmarish landscape. Credit: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
This image of a GI struggling to
shore fronted Capa’s memoir, Credit: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
As
the GI tried to reach the shore, Capa told how he was forced to hide behind a
half-burnt tank, wadding between floating bodies for few more pictures before
his final jump to shore.
“I
finished my pictures, and sea was cold in my trousers. Reluctantly, I tried to
move away from my steel pole, but the bullets chased me back every time.” – ROBERT
CAPA – SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS (1)
One
in particular, a heavily-blurred image of GI wading through water, came to be
the defining image of the landings. Under normal circumstances the grey
conditions would have been far from favorable for a photographer. However the
landscapes of the beach, littered with
anti-tank obstacles and shrapnel made it hard for Capa to capture the photos.
Many publications that used the photos also added a caption to explain the
haziness as “Capa’s hamds were badly shaking.” (7)
One of the surviving 11 images Capa took
at Omaha Beach on D-Day, Credited: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos
Dropped nearly 100 yards from the beach during the first wave
of the invasion, Capa waded through waist deep water dodging heavy fire and
carrying three cameras. In the ninety minutes that he spent on beach, Capa
witnessed men shot, blown up and set on fire all around him. (2)
Yet, when those few photos were published in Life Magazine,
they caused a sensation. They were first photographs taken from the inside of a
war, from the midst of a great battle. The faulty drying too had somehow added
a special quality to them, one that lifts them out of that specific time and
place, making them universal image of war.
“Beachheads of Normandy,” Life Magazine feature on D-Day with Robert
Capa photos, 19 June. 1944
Robert Capa is one of many wartime photographers who
have risked their lives and made the ultimate sacrifice to capture the essence
of desperate combat on film. Frozen in time and etched in our collective
memory, the D-Day photos speak volume about courage and sacrifice.
REFERENCES
1.
ITV report, “Robert Capa's D-Day
pictures: The
bullets chased me back every time.” ITV
News. 06, June. 2014. http://www.itv.com/news/2014-06-06/robert-capas-d-day-pictures (accessed 01, March. 2015).
2.
TramzRobert Capa’s Iconic D-Day Photo of a
Soldier in the Surf.” Time. 29, May. 2009. http://time.com/120751/robert-capa-dday-photos (accessed 02, March. 2015).
3.
“Distro
- D-Day & The Normandy Campaign. 1944 Robert Capa R.” Magnum Photos. © 2014 Magnum Photos - All rights reserved. https://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=29YL535ZXX00 (accessed
01, March. 2015).
4.
Brenner, Marie. “Robert Capa’s Longest Day.” VF Culture. June. 2014. http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/06/photographer-robert-capa-d-day (accessed 28, February. 2015).
5.
The Photographer: Bob Capa, “The Magnificent Eleven: The
D-Day photographs of Robert Capa.” http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html
(accessed 01, March. 2015).
6.
World War II/D-Day. “D-Day.” HISTORY. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day (accessed
28, February. 2015).
7.
Meltzer, Steve. “Photographers on
Photography: The D-Day Landing and Robert Capa’s Slightly Out of Focus Legacy.”
Imaging-Resource. 06, June. 2012. http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/06/06/photographers-on-photography-the-d-day-landing-and-robert-capas-slightly-ou (accessed
03, March. 2015).
8.
A.D. Coleman. “Alternative history: Robert Capa on D-Day (7)”
Photocritic International. 23, June. 2014. http://www.nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/photocritic/2014/06/23/alternate-history-robert-capa-on-d-day-7/ (accessed
02, March. 2015).
