The Woman Who Was Robert Capa

Gerda Taro didn’t just help invent one of the world’s most famous photographers. Briefly, she was him.

Gerda Taro

The year is 1936. On the outskirts of Barcelona, a small plane crash-lands. Miraculously, everyone on board survives, including two photographers, Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. They were risking their lives to cover the Spanish Civil War that had broken out months prior. Capa would take one of the most famous war photos in history. Taro would become the first female photographer to die in conflict — and be largely forgotten.

But it’s really a story about two identities so intertwined that it’s hard to keep them apart; difficult to know who’s who, who did what, and what it means to be a photographer.

Of course you’ve seen the following picture before. A man with his arms outstretched and his eyes closed. He’s dropping his rifle, his body falling down as a fatal bullet fatally strikes: The Falling Soldier.

Capa’s most famous Photo: Loyalist militiaman at the moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936. The photo is known commonly as The Falling Soldier.

It’s the most iconic picture of those taken by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro during the civil war. The man in the picture was part of a militia defending the Spanish Republic against the…