Robert Capa

Born on October 22, 1913 in Budapest and died on May 25, 1954 in Indochina, Robert Capa was a Hungarian photographer who covered five wars in his lifetime and redefined photojournalism. Born Endre Friedmann to Jewish parents in Budapest in 1913, he left Hungary at the age of 18 in the early 1930s to look for work, and took the nickname Robert Capa, believing it easier to sell his work with an American-sounding name. Between 1936 and 1939, Capa worked as a photographer in Spain during the civil war with photojournalist David Seymour. His most famous image is undoubtedly that of the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach. Capa also traveled to the Soviet Union with American writer John Steinbeck, and his photos were published in Steinbeck's book A Russian Journal. In 1947, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris with, among others, David Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger. In the 1950s, during a period of intense conflict in Indochina, Capa was sent on assignment to Southeast Asia for Life magazine. He was killed by a landmine after getting out of his Jeep to take a photo. He is buried in Westchester, New York.