The first to report on this discovery from Spain was Giles Tremlett in The Observer on Sunday 14th June 2009:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/14/robert-capa-spain-photography

The real discoverers that the militiaman is not Federico Borrell García were Miguel Pascual Mira and the documentary film La Sombra del Iceberg (Hugo Domenech and Raul Riebenbauer).

And the real verifier of Susperregui´s finding was elrectanguloenlamano on June 16th 2009 in Espejo, which was published in elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com on July 1st 2009:

http://elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com/2009/07/robert-capa-in-cerro-muriano-and-espejo.html

In pictures 02 and 07 appear the olive trees covered slope around
Espejo village (in 1936 covered by wheat), and besides, elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com was the first to identify the white colour houses appearing in the background of the picture in which five militiamen with one knee on the wheat covered slope (page 77 of the extraordinary ICP/STEIDL catalogue book This is War! Robert capa at War) and also on top right in the background of the last picture of the Falling Soldier photograph series (page 85 of the aforementioned catalogue book).

These two photographs – along with 38 more unknown till now – were
unveiled by ICP during the great itinerant exhibition This is War! Robert Capa at Work held in New York, London, Milan and Barcelona.

And this identification made by elrectanguloenlamano on June 16th 2009 has been a key factor to verify Professor Susperregui´s finding.

Truth is that El Periódico de Catalunya and Ernest Alós haven´t discovered anything new regarding the Falling Soldier picture, though they have been proclaiming to the world since July 17th that “THEY HAVE MADE A HISTORICAL FINDING”, that “THIS NEWSPAPER HAS BEEN ABLE TO LOCATE THE PLACE”, that “THE SOLUTION OF THE MILITIAMAN PICTURE BY CAPA MADE BY EL PERIODICO DE CATALUNYA HAS DAZZLED THE EXPERTS”, that
“ALL THE EXPERTS COINCIDE WITH THEIR EXPLANATIONS”, etc.

On the other hand, it is not true that “El Periódico de Catalunya deep study of the new 40 pictures of the This is War! Robert Capa at Work MNAC exhibition in Barcelona has enabled the world to know the truth”.

These pictures were previously present in New York, London and Milan, and obviously, they were already studied by more people.

For example, elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com published on June 21st 2009 a very comprehensive study, picture by picture, of the new photographs unveiled by the ICP of New York during the itinerary of This is War! Robert Capa at Work exhibition in New York, London, Milan, etc, and after watching the new 40 pictures unveiled by the ICP – including the 21 black and white contacts from the original existing negatives of the Falling Soldier series – we proved a month ago that there weren´t any Francoist troops attacking the militiamen while Robert Capa and Gerda Taro were taking the photographs, until unexpectedly the first militiaman was really instantly killed by a 7 x 57 mm bullet shot by a sniper.

And evidently, there were people before elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com suggesting or expressing their certainty that there weren´t real combats, even years before the unveiling of the new 40 pictures by ICP, for example José María Hernansáez in Revista Española de Historia Militar July/August 2006 and many others, a praiseworthy text, above all bearing in mind that he had to work studying only very few pictures.

We haven´t ever conceived Capa´s Falling Soldier research as a race of any kind and I went to Espejo on June 16th 2009 not searching for any personal glory of anything but just the opposite: to verify my error, because I´ve been convinced that Capa made the pictures in
Cerro de La Coja for a lot of years. And I was wrong.

My error was big, very big. 50 km of difference, and it´s clear that “I´ve lost the game” and that “I didn´t make it”.

No problem in such regard. So is life and I do accept my defeat.

In any case, I think that elrectanguloenlamano has also made a significant contribution with the 9th Part of our research to prove that neither Robert Capa nor Gerda Taro tried to deceive future observers of the 40 pictures + the already known into believe that there were rebel troops attacking and also verifying Professor Susperregui´s important discovery of Espejo as the place where Capa made his most famous picture. There mustn´t be any doubt in this respect. The skyline with the mountains has been the starting key factor for the placing in Espejo and the historical merit of this finding belongs to him and not to others.

We do believe that the two real deaths were provoked by 7 x 57 mm caliber shots made by a sniper. The first death is instant and the second one within some minutes.

On the other hand, here is the link with our research of the new pictures:

http://elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com/2009/06/robert-capa-in-cerro-muriano-day-in_21.html

But to sum up, I also think that from a global perspective, probably my only contribution to this topic of the Falling Soldier research has been sweat, sweat and sweat. I fought to my physical limit and I´m convinced that new evidence will appear in future
enhancing the authenticity of the Death of a Loyalist Militiaman picture and the great talent and honesty of Robert Capa as the best
war photographer of all time.

Yours sincerely:

José Manuel Serrano Esparza

Leica Historical Society of America

I agree that if the shot is real, then there was a certain amount of ‘luck’ involved in being in the right place and the right time, with the camera pointed in the right direction at the right time. I hate to use the word ‘luck’, because this shot may involve a person being killed.

In this case I think it may actually be harder or impossible to nail this shot with a modern AF camera. You couldn’t focus and recompose or switch focus points fast enough to get it, even if you placed the person at the center of the frame. I think you really would have to be shooting with a manual focus lens, set to f8 or f16 and using scale focusing. That way you would only need to frame and press the shutter fast enough.

I think you would be shocked to see how fast a really experienced photographer can operate a manual camera. In some cases faster than someone with the latest wiz bang DSLR. These guys were and had to be really, really good, because they didn’t have the luxury of the the automated crutch shooters have today.

Imagine if that picture had been taken today in Afghanistan and you saw it here. People would want to end the war (right now). But if you found out the image was staged, it would be the antithesis of great.

There is even a youtube video availbale showing him at work (leica rangefinder included *g) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qjym5uliDw

(For all readers who weren’t out for lunch last autumn in Brooklyn *smile)

If you like you could also read James Russell’s essay about his lave-hate-affair with a Leica M8 digi rangefinder here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qjym5uliDw.

It’s short and sweet and funny to read. Thereafter you could navigate to his website and folio trying to tell which ones have been done with the leica (hint: the more charming ones *g)

It’s common sense that sometimes non-dslr cams (e.g. rangefinders) are a better match for some type of photography (e.g. street photography, sometimes documentary, etc…).
Unfortunately there aren’t any useful digital tools available to do the job, imho. The Epson is more a fun-thingo and the Leica M8 digital is … hm, well … :-)

ok, a bit offtopic …

Cheers, Reini

Anyway, although I tend to reject this kind of “fakes” when claiming to “inform” people, let’s don’t forget that back in the ’30s this pictures were probably the only way people across the globe would learn about the war in Spain. Nowadays there’s no excuse for staging pictures, when you can literally put cameras on missiles to film while bombs are dropped.

So while he was faking it his effect as an iconic portrait of the horror of war was positive.

It’s like the picture of the vulture after the somalian girl…she wasn’t dying on that spot, she was doing her needs and the vulture was waiting to eat the depositions….yet it became an icon against famine..

In May this year the New York International Center for Photography, which houses the Capa archives, reported it could not find the negative for this image in the Mexican suitcase which did contain many Spanish civil war photographs.
http://ethicalmartini.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/robert-capas-mexican-suitcase/

And lastly, though I may have my facts wrong about this, but I believe the story was that the soldiers were not on the front line. Robert had ask them to run through some training exercises so he could take some photos and while doing so they were taken off guard by enemy fire. This resulting in this soldier being killed and Capa taking the photo simultaneously. Luck shot for Capa, not for the soldier. And it is quite plausible that the soldier was shot, fell/ rolled further downhill since he was already heading in that direction, and the second soldier came over the hill and was shot in the same spot in which the sniper still had his sights set. Speculation on my part of course, but I would rather give the man some credit than discredit him without substantial evidence. Maybe Oliver Stone should make a movie about the photo.

Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ heavily retouched.
Ansel Adams a master of dodging and burning in the darkroom.
Capa’s ‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ maybe a fake …

What’s up with the grand old masters and their most iconic images ??? :-)

There exists a codex, an unwritten contract between the photographer and the viewer : the image MUST reflect the truth !!!
At least it should be that way …

Btw, as dicussed above … a shot like this one is even easier done with old equipment … guess why?

Or just ask a street photographer like Joel Meyerowitz or ‘good old boys’ like Jürgen Schadeberg , etc… why they still work with rangefinders (although they own digital equipment as well)
Or any sports- or action photographer of the pre-AF-area …
Or ask James RUSSELL, he sometimes posts here (James RUSSELL, NOT Russell JAMES … )

Cheers, reini

But I think you’re not getting the point. The picture shows a man getting shot in the head. That’s the whole message. His identity is of no interest (unless you’re his wife and kids) so it doesn’t really matter if that guy really died so long as at least one soldier died in that war.

But of course I know that it matters. The fascination with the photograph comes from the excitement of witnessing the moment of a persons death and the assumed luck of the photographer. If it’s staged that it becomes a rather boring movie still kind of shot.

Ultimately I really don’t care that much and if I did I’d hope that it was staged. Maybe the guy got to live a long life instead of dying for our entertainment.

Let’s use this same logic to go to Iraq, gather a bunch of 55 gallon drums, label them as sarin gas and takes pictures to prove that the war was justified because Saddam really did have ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Ok, a bit more dramatic example of your argument, but can you see how dangerous it is to construct a situation based on what we ‘think’ is true?

Just stick to documenting what we see and allow others to form their opinions based on our presentations.