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Cornell Capa
June 5 – July 12, 2003 |
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The S K Josefsberg Studio
is pleased to present the work of photographer
Cornell Capa, on view at the gallery June 5 – July 12, 2003.
Cornell Capa was born Cornell Friedmann in 1918 into a
Jewish family from Budapest. As a teenager, he had aspirations
to become a doctor, for the sole purpose of helping people,
but eventually decided that he could reach more people and
have greater influence through photography.
At the age of 18 he moved to Paris where his brother Andre
Friedmann (Robert Capa) was working as a photo-journalist. He
worked as his brother’s printer for a year before moving on to
New York in 1937 to join the new Pix photo agency. By l938 he
was supporting himself by working in the Life magazine
darkroom, until his first photo-story on the New York Worlds
Fair was published in Picture Post. After service in the US
Air Force, Capa became a Life staff photographer in 1946. He
continued to work for Life until his brother's tragic death in
1954, when he joined Magnum. In 1956, after David “Chim”
Seymour’s death in Suez, Capa took over as the president of
Magnum—a post he held until 1960.
As a photographer, Capa has been particularly sensitive and
keen when covering topics of social significance or politics.
When he was working for Life he made the first of many trips
to Latin America where he chronicled the decimation of
indigenous cultures. Through the 1970s he traveled back to the
area on several occasions to continue the tales of snuffed
cultures. His efforts were rewarded in three books, among them
the subsequently famous 1964 Farewell to Eden, a study of the
Amahuaca Indians of the Amazon.
 Capa was involved in a broad range of social issues, such as
old age in America and studied his own Jewish heritage through
classic reportage, including a story on the Six-Day War. His
1957 book Retarded Children Can Be Helped was the product of
his pioneering study of mentally retarded children, a project
he started in 1954. He also covered the electoral campaigns of
John and Robert Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson and Nelson
Rockefeller. In the early 1970s, Capa coined the phrase
"Concerned Photographer" to define ‘a photographer who is
passionately dedicated to doing work that will contribute to
the understanding or the well-being of humanity’.
In 1974 Cornell Capa founded the International Center of
Photography. Devoted to the practitioners and principles that
define ‘Concerned Photography’, the ICP is a fountain
dedicated to the history of photojournalism, current makers
and future producers through its archives, galleries, library
and school. The ICP pays homage to Cornell Capa’s brother
Robert Capa, and colleagues David “Chim” Seymour and Werner
Bischof by constantly bringing humanitarian documentary work
to the public realm. Since its opening on Fifth Avenue in New
York, the Center has had over 450 exhibitions, exhibiting more
than 2,500 photographers. Capa is now the Founding Director
Emeritus of the institution.
Cornell Capa's numerous awards include the Honor Award from
the American Society of Magazine Photographers (1975), Leica
Medal of Excellence (1986), Peace and Culture Award, Sokka
Gakkai International, Japan (1990), the Order of the Arts and
Letters, France (1991), The Distinguished Career in
Photography Award from the Friends of Photography (1995), a
Honorary Membership from the ASMP (1995) and a Lifetime
Achievement Award in Photography from the Aperture Foundation
(1999).
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