The Spanish Soldier

George Will weighed in today with an opinion on the famous photograph taken by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War. It seems Wills, or his indefatigable research assistant, has discovered that the place Capa said he took the shot is forested not barren and rocky. The image of the man, arms wide and gun flung away, falling back, seems to be on a rocky hilltop. There's still no definitive answer and anyone who knew is dead.

My neighbor Ann, who lived across the street in Washington during the 60's, had been married to a Life magazine correspondent. The two of them were in Shanghai in 1946-47 when the chaos after the war was truly dangerous. That was when Henri Cartier Bresson took the image of the assault on the bank by crowds of people trying to get their savings out and back under the mattress. Capa and sometimes his brother Cornell were around in those days and also back in New York where Ann worked at the magazine.

Her version of the dying Spanish soldier is the simplest I've heard which is why it has the ring of truth. Capa was no soldier he was happy to tell her. Gunfire sent him running for cover and the work he did so bravely during the wars he covered was often from carefully chosen spots. He told Ann that on that day in Spain he had been hunkered down behind a rock formation. He heard running feet and a hail of fire so he thrust his camera up as high as he could and clicked the shutter. He pulled the camera back, advanced the film and took another shot.

Back in the developing room he saw the dying soldier for the first time, caught by perfect chance in that iconic pose of death. Anne said Capa was quite jolly about his absolute luck making those blind shots. She said it was hard to make out what either of the Capas meant in those days, when they were halfway between speaking Hungarian and English. Probably less than halfway according to Ann.

Taking photographs like that is an old news trick. If you can't make it through the crowd, you try for a lucky over-the-head shot. No one was ever as lucky as Bob Capa.