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DOCUMENTS
THE MEXICAN SUITCASE : ROBERT CAPA, CHIM (DAVID SEYMOUR), GERDA TARO
The legendary ‘Mexican suitcase’ containing Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War negatives, considered lost since 1939,
has recently been rediscovered and is exhibited here for the first time. The suitcase is in fact three small boxes
containing nearly 4,500 negatives, not only by Capa but also by his fellow photojournalists, all Jews in exile, Chim
(David Seymour) and Gerda Taro. These negatives span the course of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), through
Chim’s in-depth coverage in 1936-37, Taro’s intrepid documentation until her death in battle in July 1937, and
Capa’s incisive reportage until the last months of the conflict. Additionally, there are several rolls of film by Fred
Stein showing mainly portraits of Taro, which after her death became inextricably linked to images of the war itself.
Between 1936 and 1940, the negatives were passed from hand to hand for safekeeping, and ended up in Mexico City,
where they resurfaced in 2007. The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936. In the broadest terms, the war was a military
coup, led by General Francisco Franco and instigated to overthrow the democratically elected government of the
Spanish Republic, a coalition of leftists and centrists. From its inception, the civil war aroused the passions of those
who saw Franco’s actions as the front line of a rising tide of fascism across Europe, as he received material support from
Germany and Italy. Many leftist intellectuals and artists were committed to the antifascist struggle, and they provided
vivid images and texts in support of the Republican cause for the international press. The Mexican suitcase negatives
constitute an extraordinary window onto the vast output of these three photographers during this period: portraits,
battle sequences, and the harrowing effects of the war on civilians. While some of this work was known through vintage
prints and reproductions, the Mexican suitcase negatives, seen here as enlarged modern contact sheets, show us for
the first time the order in which the images were shot, as well as images that have never been seen before. This material
not only provides a uniquely rich view of the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that changed the course of European history,
but also demonstrates how the work of three photojournalists laid the foundation for modern war photography.
Cynthia Young, curator of the exhibition.
First show of this exhibition after New York, organised by the International Center of Photography, New York. This exhibition and its catalogue were
made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Frank and Mary Ann Arisman,
and Christian Keesee. Additional support was received from Sandy and Ellen Luger.
Enlargement by Dupon, Paris.
Exhibition produced with the support of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.
Exhibition venue: Musée Départemental de l’Arles Antique.
CHIM (DAVID SEYMOUR)
Born in 1911 in Warsaw. Deceased in 1956 in Suez.
Chim was born Dawid Szymin (Warsaw, November 20, 1911–Suez, November 10, 1956) into an intellectual family of publishers
of Yiddish and Hebrew books. In 1933, after studying graphic arts in Leipzig, he turned to photography to support himself
while continuing his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Soon he was recognized for his strong photographs of political events
of the Popular Front and became a regular contributor to the French Communist magazine Regards. Like Capa, he covered
the entirety of the Spanish Civil War. But unlike Capa and Taro, who sought to photograph on the front lines, Chim’s great
achievement is his focus on individuals outside of battle: from formal portraits of major figures to images of soldiers on
the home front and peasants laboring in small towns. He was attuned to the complicated politics of the war and imbued his
images with nuanced meaning. He is, with Robert Capa, one of the founding fathers of Magnum Photos agency, in 1947.
GERDA TARO
Born in 1910 in Stuttgart. Deceased in 1937 in Brunete, Spain.
Gerda Taro was one of the first recognised women photo journalists. Born Gerta Pohorylle in Stuttgart (August 1, 1910–Brunete,
Spain, July 26, 1937) and raised in Leipzig in a middle-class Jewish family, she fled to Paris in 1933. She soon met ‘André’
Friedmann and started photo graphing; in the spring of 1936, they reinvented themselves as Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. In
August 1936, Taro and Capa arrived in Spain as freelancers to document the Republican cause for the French press. She became
a pioneering photojournalist whose brief career consisted almost exclusively of dramatic photographs from the front lines of the
Spanish Civil War. Her later style is similar to Capa’s, but it differs in her interest in formal compositions and a level of intensity
in photographing morbid subjects. Taro worked alongside Capa and the two collaborated closely. While covering the crucial
Battle of Brunete, she was struck by a tank and died. Taro was the first female photographer to be killed while reporting on war.
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