Robert Capa A Dior model, wearing a ‘New Look’ long skirt. Place Vendôme, 1st arrondissement, Paris, France. 1948.
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 © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos
