Truth in the Making: The Never-

ALLING SOLDIER Ending Saga of Capa’s FALLING SOLDIER By Sebastiaan Faber in El Periódico forgivingly called Capa’s before, moreover, two documenta- his past July, around the 73rd trespass un pecado de juventud, or sin ries— Los héroes nunca mueren (2004) anniversary of the outbreak of of youth (Capa was 22 at the time). by Jan Arnold and Tthe Civil War and 11 days after Others went further. The president (2007) by Hugo Doménech and Raúl the opening of a large of Journalists without Borders ques- Riebenbahuer—had revealed that the exhibit at the Catalan National tioned Capa’s professional integrity. soldier could not have been Borrell. To Museum of Art, the news- Some accused him of cheating for the be sure, El Periódico claimed to have paper El Periódico de Catalunya sake of money and fame. But the pho- found additional evidence confirming published what was billed as a stun- tographer had defenders, too, some of Susperregui’s findings and to have ning revelation: Capa’s legendary whom, even while admitting the new located the exact place the photo was photograph of was a evidence of the photo’s location, still taken by analyzing the shape of the fake. New evidence, the paper refused to accept that the image was mountain range in the background of claimed, proved beyond the shadow of necessarily false. As others, including one of Capa’s photos taken the same a doubt that the image was not taken Capa’s biographer Richard Whalen, day. But the landscape case had been at Cerro Muriano near Córdoba, as had done before, they maintained that made a month before by a photog- had long been assumed, but some 50 the soldier may have posed for the raphy blogger, José Manuel Serrano kilometers south, near the town of camera, only to be unexpectedly hit by Esparza (see elrectanguloenlamano. Espejo, which Capa and a live bullet, perhaps from a sniper. blogspot.com). The timing of the had visited previously. This meant As the controversy spread, it was scoop was a bit suspicious. Was El that the militiaman depicted was hard to avoid the impression that Periódico trying to milk the anniver- definitively not Federico Borrell there was something fishy about the sary of the war’s outbreak and take García, an anarchist known to have affair. While El Periódico’s coverage advantage of the opportunity in a been killed at Cerro Muriano. In fact, was picked up in the international slow summer month? because there is no record of any battle press—in the English-language media, action in Espejo when Capa was there, it was featured by the BBC, Time, and *** the paper concluded that the photo —it was ignored by The question is not so much where must have been staged. El País, Spain’s largest national paper Capa’s photo was actually taken or if In the following weeks, pundits and leading online news portal for the it’s “real” (whatever that may mean), and columnists in Spain and else- Spanish-speaking world. Moreover, but why so many people continue where pondered this revelation. Was most of El Periódico’s revelations to feel so strongly about it. Different Capa a fraud? Should his whole work were not really new. The data on the explanations suggest themselves. be re-examined? Did he intend to new location were largely based on The debates about the “recovery of deceive the public or did the editors a book by José Manuel Susperregui historical memory” have made clear of Vu and Life, who first published the Etxebeste, a Professor of Audiovisual that the war still matters to present- image and wrote the initial captions— Communications at the University of day Spaniards. There is a widespread with Life claiming Capa had captured Basque Country. This book, Sombras sense that unpleasant truths remain “the moment of death”? An editorial de la fotografía. Los enigmas desvelados to be revealed or, similarly, that some de Nicolasa Ugartemendia, Muerte de un long-held certainties will be exposed Sebastiaan Faber is Chair of Hispanic miliciano, La aldea española y El Lute, for the lies they really are. Andalucía Studies at Oberlin College. His latest had come out months earlier and is currently in uproar over the grave books are Anglo-American Hispanists and had been covered by Giles Tremlett of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca: It is the (Palgrave, 2008) and Contra el olvido. El exilio español en Estados in The Guardian (June 14), as well as clear that there are several bodies at Unidos (Universidad de Alcalá, 2009). by El País (July 6 and 7). Some years Continued on page 8

December 2009 THE VOLUNTEER 7 FALLING Continued from page 7 Víznar, near Granada, which Lorca’s (In 1969, the Nobel Prize-winning nov- activists, journalists and documentary biographer Ian Gibson long ago sig- elist Camilo José Cela expressly did makers, or amateur scholars. Those naled as the poet’s burying place. But not dedicate his Civil-War novel San same tensions are at play in the debate conspiracy theories abound. Is one of Camilo, 1936 to “the adventurers from around Capa’s Falling Soldier, in which those bodies really Lorca’s? Was he abroad, Fascists and Marxists, who key contributions have been made secretly disinterred? The Lorca fam- had their fill of killing Spaniards like not just by curators and scholars with ily initially objected to exhumation. rabbits and whom no one had invited access to the full archive, but also by Gibson insists that the issue tran- to take part in our funeral.”) journalists, amateur historians, and scends family considerations: All of Proving Capa’s photo a fake, bloggers armed with little more than Spain deserves to know whether the undermining its legendary status a ticket to an exhibit, a digital camera, remains are Lorca’s or not. The Lorca as an iconic image of the war and and time to scout out locations. But case also raises questions at the heart suggesting that the Hungarian was now there is mutual distrust and sus- of the Capa controversy. Who owns willing to compromise journalis- picion; rather than a collective effort to the story of the Civil War, for example, tic integrity for the sake of political get to the truth, the debate has become and who can make claims to the his- propaganda or to help launch his what the Spaniards call a diálogo de sor- torical truth? career—all this is not just about get- dos, or deaf man’s dialogue. During the Franco years—when ting to the truth. It marks one more historical research in Spain was step in the Spaniards’ gradual re- *** severely hampered by the regime, conquest of the right to shape and tell The book that located The Falling while exiled Republican historians their history. (Interestingly, this sum- Soldier in Espejo is not just about Capa. had no access to archives and often mer’s Capa coverage was an almost It aims to reveal the truth behind lacked institutional support—foreign exclusively Catalan affair, led by the four photographic images, or sets academics, particularly from , same newspaper that has given ample of images, that have achieved iconic Britain and the United States, took attention to the recent discovery of the status. Besides Capa’s print, it has the lead in shaping the narrative of archives of Agustí Centelles, one of sections on a much-circulated shot of 20th century Spanish history. The the Republic’s official photographers. a forlorn family of Basque refugees first standard studies were penned by Some of Centelles’ most iconic images, (who happen to be the author’s aunt, Pierre Vilar, Raymond Carr, Gabriel including a photo of two guardias de cousin, and great-grandmother), Jackson, Hugh Thomas, Herbert asalto shooting rifles from behind a Eugene W. Smith’s reportage of a Southworth, Stanley Payne and, later pile of dead horses, are, ironically, also Spanish village (published by Life on, by Paul Preston, Helen Graham, known to have been posed.) in 1951), and photos registering the and Carolyn Boyd. While Spanish But this is not the only issue. The capture of the infamous criminal “El intellectuals respected these hispani- recuperación de la memoria histórica, Lute.” The author, J.M. Susperregui, stas, they also felt that this hegemony spearheaded in 2000 by Emilio Silva is driven by a philosophically naïve of foreign scholars was anomalous when he founded the association of but useful principle: press photog- and, in the end, embarrassing. The for- the same name, continues to be con- raphy, he maintains, is either true eigners liked to claim that they were troversial. It has exposed or fueled or false. It either registers actual more objective because they were tensions not just between Left and events as they occurred in reality less involved in Spain’s political rifts. Right and between the Spanish cen- or it seeks to manipulate that real- Others argued that non-Spaniards tral government and the autonomous ity, thus deceiving the audience. The were more prone to romanticize or regions, but also between established only way to find out which is which misread Spanish reality—as had academic historians and non-aca- is by carefully looking at the image many of the foreigners who, like Capa, demics who claim to tell stories about while, at the same time, reconstruct- flocked to Spain after the outbreak of the past that are true and relevant— ing the exact circumstances of its war, and not all of whom were driven including aging victims of repression creation. This is precisely what he did by a pure, disinterested desire to help. and their family members, citizen for the Capa photo, beginning with

8 THE VOLUNTEER December 2009 a detailed review of all the evidence the picture, or perhaps even a tripod, circumstantial data as definitive and arguments presented so far, and belying his later claim to have shot proof. The fact that a certain Federico then moving to his own analysis and it by lifting his arm above a trench Borrell was killed at Cerro Muriano, conclusions. Although Susperregui’s and without looking through the for instance, and that, when asked, style is more essayistic than aca- view finder. The fact that both photos some of his aging family members demic—he tends to be colloquial, published in Vu are of two different claimed to recognize him in Capa’s chatty and a bit prolix, and the book soldiers dying in exactly the same photograph, was considered enough to is not edited very thoroughly—he spot, and that both images are almost declare the case closed. (It later turned presents his case with a good dose of identically framed—as is a third photo out that the real Borrell did not much common sense. His final position is from the series depicting a running resemble the man in the photo and was clear: the militiaman depicted is not militiaman—further supports the shot while sheltered behind a tree.) Federico Borrell; the picture was not tripod hypothesis. How likely is it taken at Cerro Muriano, but at Espejo, that two different men were killed on *** and before September 5; it was not the same precise square meter in the For those who have doubted the taken with Capa’s Leica, but with rearguard, within moments of each authenticity of The Falling Soldier, Taro’s Rolleiflex, and likely from a tri- other, with a photographer there to the status of Capa’s photograph is directly linked to the photographer’s A whole photographic career, however, does not stand or fall integrity: If the picture was a fraud, by a single image. then so was he. The biggest tactical mistake of Capa’s biographer, Robert Whelan, was to accept this premise, pod; it was posed; and the soldier is capture both deaths with an amaz- in effect allowing Capa’s reputation only pretending to have been hit. ingly steady hand? to rest on this one question. In 2002, Regardless of whether Susperregui Susperregui is convinced that when all evidence seemed to point is right, he brings up a number of those defending the image’s authen- in the direction of Borrell, Whelan issues that have been glossed over by ticity—particularly the International concluded in an article in Aperture: previous scholars—some surprisingly Center of Photography in New York “May the slanderous controversy that so, because they are photo-technical and Magnum—are operating in bad has plagued Robert Capa’s reputation in nature. Susperregui notes, for faith, purposely ignoring evidence to for more than twenty-five years now, instance, that the image in Life in July protect their institutional interests. at last come to an end with a verdict 1937 contains a much larger portion This charge is misplaced and unhelp- decisively in favor of Capa’s integrity. of sky than the first published ver- ful. In fact, the catalog and the exhibit It is time to let both Capa and Borrell sion in Vu of late September 1936. The allot ample space to the issue and rest in peace, and to acclaim The Falling changed aspect ratio suggests that present all the available documenta- Soldier once again as an unquestioned the photo may have been taken with tion in an exemplary way, allowing masterpiece of photojournalism and as Gerda Taro’s Rolleiflex (which pro- everyone to draw their own conclu- perhaps the greatest war photograph duces square negatives) rather than sions. There are other reasons why it ever made.” Implicit here is the admis- with Capa’s Leica (whose negatives took so long to find out what we know sion that reopening of the case will have a 3:2 ratio). This is not a crazy now. We have to remember that Capa automatically draw Capa’s integrity supposition: We know Capa and Taro himself supplied very little informa- into question once again. were both there, and of the 40 prints tion on the film. He sent it to to A whole photographic career, how- that have been preserved, at least be developed and later gave several ever, does not stand or fall by a single eight were taken with the Rolleiflex. mutually contradictory accounts of its image. More important, Susperregui’s Given that this was a heavier cam- creation. Still, reading Susperregui’s driving principle, that a documentary era, however, it is likelier that Capa analysis, one is surprised how quick photograph is either true or false, does would have used both hands to take previous investigators were to accept Continued on page 10

December 2009 THE VOLUNTEER 9 Continued from page 9 borrow Geoff Pingree’s words. mean that this dramatic image does not hold up in practice. Documentary We should remember that Capa’s not accurately represent the deaths evidence is more complicated. The work was as much about illusion as of thousands like him. Fiction and working conditions for journalists about reality. His job as a photographer non-fiction are not synonyms for in Spain were extremely difficult, as was to allow the readers of Life, Vu, falsity and truth. An undoctored pho- Paul Preston has made clear in We and Picture Post to feel as if they were tograph can be a lie, in the same way Saw Spain Die. The majority of what on the battlefront without leaving the that a doctored one may well reveal we consider documentary material of safety and comfort of their homes. the world as it really is. The fact that the Spanish Civil War was doctored or This illusion—made possible by new Capa’s Falling Soldier—by all accounts manipulated in some way, if not by the technologies as much as by the pho- a realist, representative image of the writers and photographers, then by the tographers’ courage—was half of the Spanish Civil War—almost imme- Spanish censors or the editors at home. excitement. It is no coincidence that in diately acquired the status of symbol And even if objectivity or neutrality December 1938, Picture Post printed a representing the whole struggle of a had been possible in the coverage of the full-page portrait of Capa, author of people (or, alternatively, the horrors of war, few people thought it desirable. “the finest pictures of front-line action war) made the question of whether the The political stakes were high—and so ever taken,” while Life claimed that photo was or wasn’t “authentic” even were the publishers’ and the public’s its camera (that is, Capa’s) “gets closer more irrelevant. In this sense, reveal- demand for sensational images of suf- to the Spanish war than any camera ing that Capa’s image was staged fering and death. has ever got before.” In the end, the would be like revealing that there magazines’ infatuation with their is no actual body in the Tomb of the *** sensational reporting is not unlike El Unknown Soldier. It’s time to ask the central ques- Periódico’s fascination with its coverage Susperregui’s book makes a signifi- tion: What if The Falling Soldier were of the Capa affair this past summer. cant contribution to a long-standing staged? Would the knowledge that the Capa’s photos mobilized the debate. When it comes to establishing man depicted in this image did not illusion of proximity, and his own rep- whether The Falling Soldier was staged or not, Susperregui certainly bolsters Fiction and non-fiction are not synonyms for falsity and truth. the doubters’ case. But if he is right, An undoctored photograph can be a lie, in the same way that a the only thing lost is our certainty that doctored one may well reveal the world as it really is. the photographer happened to be there when one particular death occurred, while we know that hundreds of die at the moment the photo was taken utation, to tell truths about the world, thousands died, with or without a change the way we think about Spain, in much the same way that good real- photographer present. This may the Civil War, or 20th century history? ist fiction does. That this man may not lessen our belief in serendipity, but it The answer is that it wouldn’t. Capa have been dying or dead when Capa should not affect much else. did not record a news event at Espejo. pressed the shutter release does not What made his image so powerful was not that it pictured a history- An Unexpected Gift changing, unique incident—the moon landing or the murder of a president When the popular San Francisco vet Bill Bailey died eleven years ago, the or the conquest of Teruel. We see an Bay Area VALB Post and his many friends initiated a project to preserve unknown man dying at an unknown his small cottage on public park land in his home city. Unfortunately, a location in Spain, and we know, as did lack of funds and public support has led to abandonment of the proj- Capa’s first viewers, that hundreds of ect. This year, the unused funds (around 6,500) have been transferred to Spanish men and women were dying ALBA, acting as a non-profit educational corporation. After talking with in this way every day. some of Bill’s friends and his son, we’ve marked the money for the main- Limiting the discussion to the true- tenance fund of San Francisco’s monument to all the Abraham Lincoln or-false question does “not initiate the Brigade volunteers. Bill’s memory lives on with the cause he supported. most useful lines of examination,” to

10 THE VOLUNTEER December 2009