Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro (real name Gerda Pohorylle; 1 August 1910, Stuttgart - 27 July 1937, near Brunete, Spain) was a Jewish German war photographer of Polish family, and close friend, partner, companion, and lover of photographer Robert Capa. Taro is regarded often as the first female photojournalist both working and being killed in battle.

Early life

Gerda Pohorylle was born in 1910, in Stuttgart, within a Jewish Polish family of middle class. Pohorylle attended a Swiss boarding school.

In 1929 the family moved to Leipzig where they suffered by the Nazism raising. Gerda opposed the Nazi Party joining leftist groups. In 1933, she was arrested for a long period being charged with distributing propaganda against the Nazis. Nonetheless, she mocked her captors entering to the prison wearing heels and with a full makeup. Eventually, the entire Pohorylle household was forced to leave the Nazi Germany toward different destinations. Gerda could not meet her relatives ever again.

France

Escaping Hitler's Germany anti Semitism, Pohorylle moved to Paris in 1934. In 1935 she met the photojournalist Andre Friedmann, a Jewish individual of Hungary, becoming his personal assistant and learning photography. They fell in love. Then, Pohorylle began to work for Alliance Photo as a picture editor.

In 1936, Pohorylle received her first credential of professional photojournalist. Then, both she and Friedmann devised a plan. Both took news photographs but these were sold as the production of the nonexistent American photographer Robert Capa (after Frank Capra), which was a convenient name overcoming the increasing political intolerance which predominated in Europe and belonging in the well rewarding American market. The secretiveness of the maneuver didn't last long but Friedman kept the more commercial Capa for his own name. Then, Pohorylle adopted the professional name of Gerda Taro, after the Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto and Greta Garbo. They worked together to cover the events surrounding the arrival to power of the Popular Front in the 1930s in France.

Spanish Civil War

When the Spanish Civil War broke out (1936), Gerda Taro got to Barcelona, Spain, to cover the events with Capa. Taro acquired the nickname of la pequeña rubia ("the little blonde"). They covered the war together at the northeastern Aragon and staying longer at the southern Cordoba. Always together under the common bogus signature of Robert Capa, they were successful through many important publications (the Swiss Züricher Illustrierte, the French Vu). Of their early Spain War photo shots, their authorship is distinguishable still nowadays. Taro used a Rollei camera which rendered squared photographs. Capa produced rectangular Leica pictures. However, for some time in 1937 they produced similar 135 film pictures together under the label of Capa&Taro.

Subsequently, Taro attained some independence. She refused Capa's marriage proposal. Also, she became publicly related to the circle of anti fascist European intellectuals (Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell) who crusaded particularly for the Spanish Republic. The Ce Soir leftist newspaper of France signed her for publishing Taro's works only. Then, she began to commercialize her production under the Photo Taro label. Regards, Life, Illustrated London News, Volks-Illustrierte were amongst those publications.

Reporting the Valencia bombing, alone Gerda Taro attained the photographs which are her most celebrated ones nowadays. Also, in July of 1937 Taro's photographs became avidly demanded by the international press when, alone, she was covering the Brunete region (westward near Madrid) for Ce Soir. Although the Nationalist propaganda was claiming that the region was under its control, the Republican forces had indeed forced that faction out. For the world, Taro's camera was the only testimony of the actual situation.

Death

During her coverage of the Republican army retreat of the Battle of Brunete, Taro hoped onto the footboard of a car which carried wounded soldiers when a Republican tank collided by its side. Gerda Taro fell onto the ground suffering terminal wounds and she died on the next day, July 27 1937.

By her political compromise, Gerda Taro had already become a quite esteemed anti fascist figure. On August 1, on what would have been her 27th birthday, the French Communist party gave her a grand funeral in Paris, buried her at Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, and commissioned Alberto Giacometti to create a monument for her grave. On 26 September 2007, the International Center of Photography opened the first major U.S. exhibition of Taro's photographs.

Notes

References

• Irme Schaber, "Gerda Taro: una fotografa rivoluzionaria nella guerra civile spagnola" (Roma: DeriveApprodi, 2007), with a preface by Elisabetta Bini (Gerdaphoto)
• Maspero, François. L'ombre d'une photographe, Gerda Taro. Paris: Le Seuil, 2006. ISBN 2-02-085817-7
• Schaber, Irme. Gerta Taro: Fotoreporterin im spanischen Bürgerkrieg. Marburg: Jonas, 1994. ISBN 3-89445-175-0
• Schaber, Irme; translation by Pierre Gallissaires. Gerda Taro: Une photographe révolutionnaire dans la guerre d'Espagne. Paris: Editions du Rocher, 2006. ISBN 2-268-05727-5

External links

• " International Center of Photography Holds First Major Exhibition of Taro's Work", New York Times, 22 September 2007.