Republican Soldier Killed in the Spanish Civil War

This is one of the most famous war photographs of all time; it is synonymous with the man who made it, Robert Capa. In 1938, when he was 25, Capa was proclaimed to be “the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history” by British “Picture Post”. The photograph was taken at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and shows a soldier just as he is hit by a bullet. It became emblematic of photography’s ability to capture sudden death and has been published all over the world. But it has also been questioned whether the picture was staged. This photograph is typical of the photo journalism that came to define the work of Capa and his colleagues at Magnum Photos in the late 1940s.