Robert Capa, Dior Model, 'Capa's World in Color' Photograph
Robert Capa, authentication hand stamped seal on the back
A Dior model, wearing a ‘New Look’ long skirt. Place Vendôme, 1st arrondissement, Paris, France. 1948.
6 x 6 in. (15.2 x 15.2 cm.), Frame: 9 3/4 x 8 in. (24.8 x 20.3 cm.) Approx
Robert Capa — near-exclusively known for his black and white photographs — first used color film in 1938 while covering the Sino-Japanese War. In a letter to his friend Peter Koester he asked to be sent ‘12 rolls of Kodachrome with all instruction; whether special filters are needed, etc. — in short, all I should know…’ The only color images of Capa’s to have been published from the war were of the burning of Hankou, of which Life ran four in its October 17 issue. Capa photographed with color during the first years of World War Two, and resumed using the medium after the war’s end. As Cynthia Young wrote, ‘The idea that Robert Capa photographed in color, and not just occasionally, but regularly after 1941 until his death in 1954, is surprising — even shocking — to some.’

This image — not only shot in color, but an example of his peace-time fashion work, demonstrates a near-unseen aspect of Capa’s decades of work.

Text informed by Cynthia Young, “Capa’s World in Color,”in Capa in Color (International Center of Photography / DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2014).

Robert Capa is one of the best photographers of the 20th as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elliott Erwitt, Annie Leibovitz or Robert Capa, he was considered an icon of 20th century culture like Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons or Banksy.

Hand stamped Robert Capa Estate

Housed in a floating Fame

nice