Gerda Taro: The forgotten photojournalist

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Marcus
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Gerda Taro: The forgotten photojournalist

#1

Post by Marcus » 27 Dec 2013, 13:01

In July 1937 a Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany became the first female war photographer to die on assignment. At the age of 26, Gerda Taro was just starting to make a name for herself and had already helped launch the career of the young Robert Capa.
Gerda Taro spent the last day of her life in the trenches of Brunete, west of Madrid, holed up with Republican fighters.
It was a critical moment in the Spanish Civil War - Gen Franco's forces had just retaken the town, inflicting heavy losses on the Republicans' best troops, who were now under fire as they retreated.
As bombs fell and planes strafed the ground with machine-gun fire, Taro kept taking photographs.
She was due to return to France the next day and only left the trenches when she ran out of film, making her way to a nearby town.
"She was elated, saying 'I've got these fantastic photographs, I've got champagne, we're going to have a party,'" says Jane Rogoyska, author of a new book, Gerda Taro, Inventing Robert Capa.
She jumped onto the running boards of a car transporting wounded soldiers, but it collided with an out-of-control tank and she was crushed. She died in hospital from her injuries early the following morning.
Her photographs from that day, 25 July 1937, were never found.
She had spent the previous year making regular trips to Spain to document the fighting.
"Taro became very emotionally involved in the Spanish Civil War… she was so passionate about the suffering of the Spanish people," says Rogoyska.
Republican fighters had great respect for her. In her book, Rogoyska quotes the memoirs of Alexander Szurek, an adjutant to a Republican general: "We all loved Gerda very much… Gerda was petite with the charm and beauty of a child. This little girl was brave and the Division admired her for that," he wrote.
On some previous trips, Taro had been accompanied by her partner, photographer Robert Capa, but on this occasion she travelled without him and fell in with Canadian photographer Ted Allan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25108104

/Marcus

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Ironmachine
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Re: Gerda Taro: The forgotten photojournalist

#2

Post by Ironmachine » 27 Dec 2013, 21:17

She jumped onto the running boards of a car transporting wounded soldiers, but it collided with an out-of-control tank and she was crushed.
Is there any witness' account to corroborate this version? AFAIK, nobody knew the details of the accident. That is, not until 2009, when a second-hand account of a witness showed a very different story: no out-of-control tank and no crash, but a Gerda Taro that fell from the vehicle and while on the floor was crushed by a tank that was entering the road from the field and in reverse and so could not see her:
http://elpais.com/diario/2009/07/12/cul ... 50215.html


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Maxschnauzer
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Re: Gerda Taro: The forgotten photojournalist

#3

Post by Maxschnauzer » 03 Mar 2014, 14:53

No matter how she met her end she was a great photographer as you can see here:
http://jessiewilliams505.wordpress.com/ ... emembered/
Interestingly Robert Capa was also "killed in action" when he stepped on a landmine while covering the French Indo-China War.
Cheers,
Max

markderby
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Re: Gerda Taro: The forgotten photojournalist

#4

Post by markderby » 22 Jul 2014, 01:24

The doctor who operated on Gerda Taro after her tragic accident was the New Zealand surgeon Doulas Jolly. He arrived in Spain in December 1936 and remained there throughout the civil war, working as close as possible to the front lines. Many of his colleagues described him as the most skilled battlefield surgeon they had ever met. Sadly, although he fought all night to save her life, he was not successful n the case of Taro.

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